KARACHI: Bar members plan to march against city police chief
By Ali Hazrat Bacha
KARACHI, June 7: The Karachi Bar Association on Thursday accused police of using delaying tactics to avoid the transfer of lawyers’ case against the Sindh government and Muttahida Qaumi Movement leaders from the DIG Zone-I to the DIG Zone-II, and warned that if the law-enforcement agency continued with its tactics, the lawyers would take out a protest demonstration against City Police Chief Azhar Farooqui.
An FIR of the case, pertaining to an armed attack on a lawyers’ rally on May 12, was registered on May 19 by the City Court police under a court’s order after the complainant, KBA General Secretary Naeem Qureshi, had informed the District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Azeem that the FIR was not being registered. The FIR (53/07) was registered under Sections 147, 148, 149, 324, 427, 365/511 and 506 of the PPC. However, the SHO concerned disposed of the FIR under Section 157-B of CrPC, prompting the lawyers to move the court again. Subsequently, the DIG Zone-I was ordered to investigate the case.
The complainant filed a request with the city police chief for the transfer of the case to the DIG Zone–II, headed by DIG Mir Zubair Mehmood, but the request is still awaiting action.
Mr Qureshi maintained that DIG Manzoor Mughal of Zone-I had assigned the investigation to a committee headed by a ‘corrupt’ officer and, therefore, a fair investigation could not be expected from such a committee. The probe committee comprises two DSPs and an SIO (Station Investigation Officer).
Terming his request for the transfer of the case ‘a basic right of the aggrieved party’, he said the police could not deny it. He insisted that the police chief was bound to transfer the case, though he could also reject the application. He said that a rally against the police chief was planned to be taken out on Friday June 8, “but he has told me that the case will be transferred,” Mr Qureshi told reporters on Thursday.
In the FIR, the complainant said that on May 12, KBA members were on their way to the Sindh High Court in a procession to participate in the Supreme Court’s golden jubilee celebrations at which Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry was also invited as chief guest. He claimed that the procession was attacked by armed men.
KARACHI, June 7: The Karachi Bar Association on Thursday accused police of using delaying tactics to avoid the transfer of lawyers’ case against the Sindh government and Muttahida Qaumi Movement leaders from the DIG Zone-I to the DIG Zone-II, and warned that if the law-enforcement agency continued with its tactics, the lawyers would take out a protest demonstration against City Police Chief Azhar Farooqui.
