May 22, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 05, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 21: The Supreme Court was moved here on Monday for the replacement of Sindh Governor Isharatul Ibad by a non-partisan figure because of his failure to control the situation in Karachi on May 12.

In the petition filed under fundamental rights, petitioner Shahid Orakzai questioned the competence of the governor to hold his office after allegedly keeping the president in the dark about the breakdown of the constitutional machinery in the province.

He questioned the appointment of a governor who allegedly would be influenced by the majority party or obstructed from discharging his constitutional duties in an hour of crisis. He asked if the governor could continue to function even if he compromised the security of the country.

The petitioner alleged that the state, particularly the province, had facilitated the carnage and declined to interrupt the bloodbath. No casualty was reportedly blamed on a bullet fired by the law-enforcement personnel under the command of the two governments.

“Not a single magistrate subordinate to the Sindh government invoked his powers under Sections 129 and 130 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC),” he stated. The constitution did not recognise any brand of violence called a ‘riot’ and no injury could be rationalised on the ground of public anger, he said.

He emphasised the need for the court to take note of the breach of some of the fundamental rights, not for their enforcement as such but to determine whether anything known to the constitution as a provincial government or defined as high court did exist in Sindh on May 12.

The governor, the petition alleged, was an active member of an ‘ill-reputed political party,’ the major component of the coalition ruling Sindh, and was partisan in the eyes of the constitution, a fact attested on May 12.

The constitution did not allow a partisan to be installed as governor because he would overlook a breakdown of constitutional machinery rather than lodging a timely complaint to redress a problem, he said.

A contempt of court petition has also been filed before the Supreme Court against Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elaji and federal Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed for scandalising the chief justice of Pakistan during a rally in Islamabad on the same day. The petition has been filed by Advocate Imtiaz Ahmed Kaifi.