KARACHI, Aug 15 Criticising the PPP-led coalition government for it's “failure to honour its commitments”, Jamaat-i-Islami Amir Syed Munawwar Hasan has said that the rulers have failed to meet the expectations of the people.

He stated that despite the lapse of 15 months, the ruling party has not restored the Constitution to the pre-Oct 12, 1999, position.

Addressing the general body meeting of the Karachi Bar Association held at the Shuhada-i-Punjab Hall of the City Courts, the JI chief said the prime minister had announced that an all-party conference on Balochistan would be convened, but there had been no progress so far in this regard.

However, the APC would only be successful if the basic grievances of the Baloch people, including registration of a case against retired general Pervez Musharraf for the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, prosecution of those responsible for the killing of Baloch leaders in Turbat and the tracing of around 1,200 missing persons in Balochistan was done, he added.

Opposing the military operation in Swat and in other parts of the NWFP, Mr Hasan called upon the government to resolve the issue through negotiations, adding that the American drone attacks inside Pakistani territory had put national integrity at stake.

“The US has acquired land to set up a cantonment along its consulate in Islamabad in order to access the country's atomic programme,” he alleged, demanding that the government press US and Nato forces to leave the region.

The JI chief urged Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to order a reinvestigation into the Lal Masjid operation, as well as the incidents of violence in Karachi on May 12, 2007 and April 9, 2008.

Earlier, the president of the Karachi Bar Association Mohammad Ali Abbasi and general secretary Naeem Qureshi lauded the role of the Jamaat-i-Islami during the lawyers' struggle for independence of the judiciary and reinstatement of superior courts' judges.

May 12, April 9 tragedies

Meanwhile, the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany visited the city courts and met the lawyers' representatives at the KBA office. Talking to the lawyers, the chief justice said the ugly incidents of May 12 and April 9 were to be investigated.

The CJ observed that two separate FIRs on the tragic incidents of May 12 and April 9 had already been registered, adds PPI.

A judicial probe into these incidents would soon be conducted and the culprits behind them punished according to law, he added.