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| August 28, 2007 | Tuesday | Sha’aban 14, 1428 |
KARACHI: May 12 mayhem: minister, KPT deny placing containers
KARACHI, Aug 27: The mystery surrounding the containers placed on city roads on May 12 deepened on Monday as the federal minister for ports and shipping categorically denied that his ministry or the Karachi Port Trust owned or supplied them and the provincial administration and police officers also expressed their ignorance about their movement and placement.
Insofar as the containers around the Sindh High Court building, “they were placed with the consent of the SHC
and Karachi Bar Association office-bearers to prevent political rallies near the court premises”, Advocate Raja Qureshi stated on behalf of former chief secretary Shakeel Durrani, home secretary G.M. Mohtaram Naqvi, capital city police officer Azhar Ahmed Farooqui and Saddar Town police officer Tahir Naveed.
Three containers, he told the seven-member bench conducting suo motu inquiry into the May 12 incidents, were brought inside the SHC building at an SHCBA request to facilitate full media coverage of the chief justice’s speech at the SHCBA function scheduled for May 12 evening.
Ports and Shipping Minister Babar Khan Ghori and provincial home affairs adviser Waseem Akhtar appeared and submitted their comments, affidavits and replies to the questionnaire drawn up by amicus curiae Qazi Faez Isa. Their counsel, Khwaja Naveed Ahmed and Iqtidar Husain Hashmi, made them stand up as hearing commenced but the bench remarked that their presence in person had not been ordered.
The counsel said an impression had been created by media reports that the court had drawn an adverse inference from their absence on the previous date and their failure to file rejoinders. They had all the respect for the judiciary, he said.
Advocate Wasim Sajjad appeared for Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim. He said he should be supplied a copy of the original transcript of the allegedly contumacious remarks made by the CM in his interview with the BBC on May 28.
KBA President Javed Iftikhar Qazi, who has moved the contempt application, was told to give Mr Sajjad a copy. The bench declined a request that the contempt case should be taken off its docket as it had nothing to do with the May 12 events. But it decided that the matter should be heard separately after the tea-break. Mr Sajjad sought time to go through the copy of the transcript and the bench adjourned the hearing to Sept 3, when it would be taken up after the tea-break.
The bench asked the federal interior secretary and the Rangers director-general through Deputy Attorney-General Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui to file their comments along with their replies to the questionnaire.
The CM, Mr Akhtar and the SHO of Soldier Bazaar were allowed to be added to the list of respondents in Iqbal Kazmi’s petition against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The Aaj and ARY OneWorld TV channels also produced their CDs containing footage of the May 12 live coverage. The bench asked the parties to exchange their pleadings well in time as the bench might have to proceed from day to day next month due to the impending assignment of some of its members to the Hyderabad and Sukkur circuits.
The administration and police officers said in their comments that maximum measures were taken on May 12 to maintain law and order.
In addition to the ordinary weapons, about 700 Kalashnikov rifles were given to selected personnel. Complete details were provided by them with regard to extra police detailed for May 12 and weapons issued to them.
Advocate Qureshi also placed before the bench the record of FIRs registered, challans produced before competent courts and investigations conducted by police into May 12 cases.
In his four-page reply, Minister Babar Ghori said most of the questions in the questionnaire sent to him fell outside the purview of his ministry and organisations working under it. Neither the ministry nor the Karachi Port Trust owned or supplied any container nor did they know where they were placed. No container was obtained under his order or by that of any of his subordinates, he said.
KPT Chairman Vice-Admiral (retd) Ahmad Hayat said containers belonged to different shipping agents and were handled by their respective terminal operators, off-dock terminals and empty container terminals outside the port premises.
The KPT neither owned containers nor possessed their handling equipment; it issued only gate passes for their entry and exit. A total of 616 containers left East Wharf and West Wharf after due clearance from the Customs and KPT authorities from the May 10 midnight till May 12 noon. He produced the entire record pertaining to the movement of containers as directed by the court. The former vice-admiral denied having received or accepted any direction or request for the supply of containers.
SHCBA President Abrar Hasan said he would submit a ‘chart’ showing discrepancies and evasions in the replies to the questionnaire. The bench asked him to furnish copies to the other side.
The bench, which consists of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Mushir Alam, Azizullah M. Memon, Khilji Arif Hussain, Maqbool Baqar and Ali Sain Dino Metlo, will next assemble on Sept 3.
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