PNS Mehran attack: Petitioner prays court to order judicial probe

The people responsible need to be punished, maintains petitioner.

KARACHI:

A constitutional petition was filed by Haji Gul Ahmed, the chief of the Anjuman-e-Islami Islah-bara-e-Moashira (Islamic Organisation for Social Reform) in the Sindh High Court on Wednesday, praying the court to start a judicial probe into the PNS Mehran attack.

The petitioner maintained that the incident was a complete “security failure” as the terrorists entered the naval base from the rear end of the Pakistan Air Force Base Faisal. Therefore, the air force is equally responsible for the breach, he argued.

Ahmed submitted that at the time of attack, six American officers and 11 Chinese naval personnel were present at the base and were evacuated during the operation. Interior Minister Rehman Malik gave the statement that there were six attackers and four were killed, while two escaped. But according to the Pakistan Navy’s official version, an authorised officer put the number of the attackers in the FIR as 12, he argued.

If this is the situation after militants jolt an entire military installation, one can imagine the government’s response if an enemy country attacks Pakistan, the petitioner stated. There seems to be no plan to counter the militants, he added.

Given the looming threats and no national policy to curb them, the incident may be probed into by a high-level judicial commission with a mandate to fix responsibility of the lapse and to recommend punishments to those who were at fault, the petitioner appealed to the court. The petition was admitted by the court’s office and is likely to be heard in a day or two.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2011.