KARACHI, May 29: The recently constituted three-member police committee tasked to conduct an inquiry into the failure of law-enforcement agencies to prevent the breakdown of law and order on May 12 is said to be reluctant to conduct the probe, sources in the police department told Dawn on Tuesday.

The inquiry committee is headed by Additional Inspector-General of Special Branch Mohammad Bachal Sangri. The other two members are Zone I DIG Investigations Manzoor Ahmed Mughal and ASP Naeem Ahmed Shaikh.

The sources told Dawn that the inquiry committee failed to see the rationale behind the initiation of a probe following suo motu action by the Sindh High Court on the basis of a report prepared by the registrar on the siege of the court premises the day Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had flown in to take part in the golden jubilee celebrations of the Supreme Court.

Sources privy to the informal discussions of the inquiry committee said the members could not place their reservations on record.

They were convinced that the inquiry at this stage would be of little utility, the sources said.

“If the government was really interested in initiating an inquiry into the May 12 events, it should have done so earlier on. Now that the Sindh High Court has initiated proceedings on the May 12 siege and police failure to prevent it, there is little that the inquiry committee can do now,” the members are reported to have observed.

The sources said that at the moment the respondents were not even willing to talk to the inquiry committee.

The sources said the order issued by the provincial police officer on the formation of the inquiry committee said that the members would fix responsibility for the May 12 violence.

“In this politically charged atmosphere, this is too much to expect from an inquiry committee working under the provincial home department,” they said.