October 25, 2008	Saturday	Shawwal 25, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 24: The inquiry tribunal, which was entrusted with the task of identifying culprits behind the April 9 violence that left 11 people dead, has offered no guidelines to the government in this regard, sources privy to the contents of the tribunal’s report told Dawn on Friday.

The inquiry tribunal, headed by Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui of the Sindh High Court, in a report submitted to the provincial home ministry raised the point that since the witnesses examined during the hearings remained unable to identify the people behind the widespread violence, it could not hold any individual or group responsible for the incident in which six people were burnt to death in an arson attack on Tahir Plaza, off M. A. Jinnah Road.

“We have received the report,” Arif Ahmed Khan, Home Secretary of Sindh, said in a brief response to Dawn’s question without sharing details of the tribunal’s findings and recommendations.

However, the officials concerned and sources close to the process suggested that in the light of the tribunal’s report it was highly unlikely that responsibility of the April 9 violence could be placed on an individual or a group.

At least 11 people were killed, including those who were burnt to death in an arson attack on Tahir Plaza, when violence erupted in the city after groups of lawyers clashed at the City Courts a day after the manhandling of former federal minister Dr Sher Afgan Khan Niazi in Lahore.

Police record shows that a total of 61 vehicles were burnt in the large-scale violence in different parts of the city.

The Pakistan People’s Party-led Sindh government moved to initiate a judicial inquiry into the incident in June 2008 after more than two months of the tragedy, following serious criticism from political quarters and the legal fraternity, and set up the tribunal with terms of reference that it “will ascertain the causes of the incident and identify the persons or groups involved in the violence.”

However, even with the conclusion of the judicial inquiry into the incident, sources believe that the preparation of a final charge-sheet against the culprits and their arrest was not possible any time soon.

“The report suggests that none of the witnesses came up with a fact which could lead it to identify the people behind the bloody incident, nor did the police investigators give any clue to trace the miscreants,” said an official citing the summary prepared by the home ministry containing the key points of the April 9 inquiry tribunal report.

However, he said, the tribunal had strongly recommended compensation for the heirs of the people killed in the incident and also for those whose vehicles were set on fire in the large-scale violence in different parts of the city.

In its five open hearings, the tribunal examined a total of 86 witnesses including family members of the people killed, doctors who received the bodies or treated the injured, fire-fighters and police officers who are investigating 34 different lodged on April 9.

Experts maintain that unlike the April 9 tribunal, judicial inquiries into different cases initiated by the government mostly succeeded to meet the desired results, pinpointing loopholes on the part of the people or institutions concerned and holding them responsible for such kind of incidents.

“A tribunal holds inquiries; it doesn’t investigate,” said Wajihuddin Ahmad, a retired Supreme Court judge. “Investigations are the responsibility of the police but the tribunal questions their performance and progress with warnings to come up with proper facts, which seems missing in its (April 9) proceedings.”

Justice Wajihuddin, who refused to take the oath of allegiance to a provisional constitution order (PCO) in 2001, said the history of judicial inquiries in the country suggested that it was always a lack of successive governments’ willingness to move in line with the findings of tribunals which prevented them from following the recommendations.

“But as I understand, in the April 9 tribunal, it seems a little different because it relied on the account of witnesses and reports from the police to finalise the report,” he added.