May 12 anniversary : 45 people were killed on this day four years ago when the CJP was supposed to be welcomed

Lawyers want suo motu cases reopened.


Zeeshan Mujahid May 11, 2011

KARACHI:


Sindh’s lawyers will mark today, May 12, as a black day in memory of the 45 people, including lawyers, who were killed on the same day four years ago.


Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry — who was non-functional at the time after a reference was filed against him — had arrived in Karachi on May 12 to attend the Sindh High Court golden-jubilee celebrations as the chief guest and address the Sindh High Court Bar Association. But he was stranded and later returned from the Karachi airport due to the fierce gunbattles that broke out on the streets towards the airport.

The Sindh Bar Council (SBC), the parent body of lawyers, and the Karachi Bar Association (KBA), the largest bar of Pakistan, announced they were observing the day in protest. “We will go on a complete strike and lawyers will tie on black armbands and hang black flags on the city courts,” said KBA president Mohammad Aqil advocate. “We will demand the reopening of the May 12 violence judicial inquiry which has been pending at the high court.”

SBC announced its programmes for the day and also expressed anger over the government’s failure to arrest the perpetrators of the carnage. The sacrifice by the people of Karachi is unforgettable, the SBC said, urging all lawyers to stay away from the courts.

The KBA would hold a general body meeting on Thursday afternoon and would stage a sit-in at MA Jinnah Road later.

What happened to the petitions?

A number of petitions and a contempt-of-court application were filed by the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) for violating the order passed by the SHC directing the authorities to ensure the safe arrival of the nonfunctional chief justice. On a report by its Registrar on the siege of the SHC premises, the manhandling of judges and damage to their cars on May 12, 2007, the SHC took suo motu notice and summoned all concerned.

The petitions and contempt applications were being heard when one political group’s activists poured into the SHC by the thousands on the day of a hearing, forcing the court to restrict entry.

The proceedings were continuing when General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, promulgated the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) and sent the judges home.

The new chief justice and other judges who took oath under the PCO, then heard and disposed of the petitions on the May 12 carnage as Justice (retd) Rasheed A Razvi, then president of the SHCBA, refused to appear before the PCO judges, saying that the lawyers did not recognise “PCO judges as judges”.

Since March 2009, when the judges were restored and even before, the bar associations have been demanding a re-opening of the May 12 cases, said KBA secretary Haider Imam Rizvi while talking to The Express Tribune. The proceedings in the May 12 cases were suo motu which means that only the court can re-open them, he explained.

Syed Iqbal Kazmi, one of the petitioners who went to court against the May 12 carnage, has in fact gone back to ask for just this. I was threatened to withdraw the petition but I never did, he said, appealing to the SHC to re-open the May 12 cases. His petition was disposed of as withdrawn by a bench of the SHC.

with additional reporting by Sohail Khattak

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12th, 2011.

COMMENTS (1)

MAD | 12 years ago | Reply And to think both sides of the battle that took place four years ago are now part of the ruling coalition. So now we know what the lives of dedicated party workers (for both sides) are worth.
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