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KARACHI, July 19: Despite hectic efforts by the Karachi Bar Association, which had earlier forced police to register an FIR of the May 12 violence around the City Courts, investigation against the respondents – the Sindh government and leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – could not be started.
The only progress made in this regard is the investigation team’s meeting with KBA Vice-President Qadir Khan on June 15. A source in the investigation branch of police told Dawn that further progress could not be made as some of the team members were not in a position to spare time to accomplish the task assigned by a court.
The investigation team that visited the City Courts on June 15 comprised Town Investigation Officer (TIO) of New Karachi Asghar Usman, TIO North Nazimabad Kanwar Asif, Senior Investigation Officer (SIO) of New Karachi Industrial Area Inspector Khalid and SIO Super Market Ghulam Akbar Narejo.
Police have been resisting any move to provide a ground to the complainants to get the shooting, bloodshed, harassment and other charges against the respondents investigated, according to the KBA leadership which recalls that the SHO concerned had flatly refused to register an FIR of the incident and the Bar had to move court. It believes that ever since the registration of the FIR under the court’s order, the police department has been playing tricks to delay the process of investigation.
KBA General-Secretary Naeem Qureshi told Dawn that delaying tactics were being used because the respondents in the case were the police and the MQM.
The KBA leader said that lawyers had recently approached former chief secretary Shakeel Durrani with a request to dissolve the probe team to pave way for the formation of an active and impartial team. However, they added, the chief secretary was transferred before he could take an appropriate action on their request.
A police official suggested that situation had remarkably changed following the major reshuffle in the police set-up in the city and, therefore, it could not be guessed who would now be tasked to undertake the investigation into the lawyers’ case.
Giving a brief account of the KBA’s efforts and the police department’s bids to delay the probe, the Bar leaders pointed out that the police had to register the FIR only when the Additional District and Session Judge, South, Mohammad Azeem, issued an order on the complainants’ plea. After registering the case, the SHO concerned disposed of the FIR under Section 157-B of CrPC and maintained that the claims made in the FIR provided no basis for an investigation. The complainant, Naeem Qureshi, had to move the court again and the judge ordered the case be investigated.
Subsequently, the DIG Zone-I took up the investigation and nominated DIG Manzoor Mughal as head of the probe team. The complainant, however, cited possibility of partiality in the investigation and on his request the investigation was transferred to a Zone III team headed by DIG Zubair Mehmood Mir.
Lawyers say that unnecessary delays were now being caused in completing legal formalities relating to the appointment of investigation teams. “More than eight weeks have passed but the investigation process could not have been completed as yet,” Mr Qureshi pointed out, adding: “Those involved don’t want justice to take its course.”
