KARACHI: Top officials given week to file replies on May 12 events
By Shujaat Ali Khan
KARACHI, Aug 20: A seven-member bench of the Sindh High Court asked Federal Shipping and Ports Minister Babar Khan Ghori, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, CM’s home affairs adviser Waseem Akhtar and other respondents to file replies to the questionnaire sent to them in respect of the May 12 events in the city by Aug 27.
Mr Ghori and Mr Akhtar failed to answer the court call on Monday. Expressing its annoyance, the bench directed the SHC office to reissue notices to them. It also took exception to the absence of the CM’s counsel, Wasim Sajjad, and of Attorney-General Malik Mohammad Qayyum. It advised the CM to engage another counsel if Mr Sajjad was busy and asked the AG to appear on Aug 27 as it wanted to expedite the proceedings once it received replies to the questionnaire. No adjournment would be granted in future and costs may have to be imposed for absence from the proceedings.
The bench was informed by officiating Advocate-General Masood A. Noorani that Mr Sajjad, leader of the house in the Senate, was busy due to the impending session of the upper house. Deputy Attorney-General Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui said the AG himself wanted to appear in the proceedings instead of deputing any law officer but he was before the Supreme Court.
The bench rejected the DAG’s plea for adjournment and asked the AG to appear on the next date or depute a law officer. It also repeated that all those who had been issued notices should submit their replies to the 35-point questionnaire drawn up by amicus curiae Qazi Faez Isa and sent to them with the notices.
The Karachi Port Trust submitted a two-page reply saying that neither it owned the containers used to block roads nor supplied them.
Advocate Faez Isa said the reply was short on information and that the KPT was hiding facts from the court. Agreeing that the reply was unsatisfactory, the bench asked the trust to produce its record about the movement of containers from May 10 to May 11, including correspondence and gate passes. The KPT chairman was told to submit a personal affidavit in the matter. He might also be summoned.
Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, who heads the bench, said according to his information, the containers were delivered to the police stations concerned on May 11 evening. “You have not done your homework”, he told government counsel Raja Qureshi when he said that containers were placed around the SHC building to protect it from miscreants. He kept quiet when asked about the identity of miscreants.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan secretary-general Iqbal Haider said he would submit a comprehensive report of an HRCP fact-finding mission within 10 days.
He suggested that since the entire media was targeted on May 12, a notice may be issued to the president of the All Pakistan Newspapers Association, Mr Hameed Haroon, and record may be sought from the federal information ministry. The bench remarked that everybody who was interested in the proceedings was free to join in. Three television channels, Geo, Sindh and KTN, produced their footage of the May 12 events, which was taken on record. Notices were repeated to the Aaj and ARY OneWorld channels to produce their CDs or DVDs on the next date.
The bar representatives complained that the provincial government was directed to furnish the record of all the cases lodged or registered in respect of the May 12 events. They said 88 FIRs had been lodged. The bench asked the advocate-general to ensure that the record was produced on the next date.
Advocate Muninur Rehman, secretary of the SHC Bar Association, produced a transcript of the CM’s interview to the BBC, on the basis of which Karachi Bar Association President Javed Iftikhar Qazi has moved a contempt application against Dr Arbab Rahim. Copies of all the material produced in the court are to be furnished to the opposite sides. The KPT reply submitted through its legal affairs manager, Chaudhry Bashir Ahmed, said the trust was not aware that how many containers were used to block roads on May 12. The trust neither owned nor supplied the containers nor was it aware where they came from. It also did not know under whose orders the containers were transported and placed on the roads.
Containers, the KPT said, belonged to shipping agents and were handled by their terminal operators/off-dock terminals and by empty container terminals outside the port.
Appearing for former chief secretary Shakeel Durrani, home secretary Ghulam Mohammad Mohtaram, additional inspector-general of police Niaz A. Siddiqui, capital city police officer Azhar A. Farooqui and Saddar Town police officer Naveed Tahir, Advocate Raja Qureshi submitted that adequate information had to be collected from a number of departments in order to make a comprehensive reply to the questionnaire sent by the court and at least three weeks may be allowed.
Advocate Faez Isa opposed the request, prompting Raja Qureshi to charge that he was not acting as amicus curiae but as an interested party. Observing that the amicus curiae was properly assisting the court, the bench allowed a week’s adjournment.
The bench consisted of Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Mushir Alam, Azizullah M. Memon, Khilji Arif Hussain, Maqbool Baqar and Ali Sain Dino Metlo.
Advocates A. Q. Halepota represented the federal interior secretary and Advocates Ashraff Kazi and Obaidullah Awan the other respondents along with Advocate Qureshi. Advoate Amin Lakhari represented the Sindh Bar Council and Advocate Yusuf Leghari appeared for the Sukkur Bar Association and Advocate Pir Syed Shafqat Shah Masoomi for the Pakistan International Human Rights Organization. Petitioner Iqbal Kazmi’s counsel, Naheed Afzal, was not present while he himself was brought to the court after the proceedings.
