On May 12’s anniversary, ex-judge wants progress report

The petition seeks updates on compensation to victims, tracking of culprits.

ISLAMABAD:

Five years after the May 12 violence in Karachi, a former judge moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking details on the steps taken to name the culprits.

Advocate Saeed Khurshid, who resigned in 2007 following Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chadhry’s ouster, filed a writ petition seeking the complete data of the victims of violence in Karachi on May 12, 2007.

Making the interior and Punjab home department secretaries, the inspectors general of the Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad police forces, the Pakistan, Punjab and Sindh bar councils, and the Sindh High Court registrar respondents, the petitioner maintained that no substantial steps have been taken for the nomination of culprits or to compensate the victims’ families.

The petition maintains that it is also important to know what happened to their families after the killings. He said that SHC took suo motu notice of the issue and the findings should be made public.

He asked some fundamental questions in his petition about the incident, asking whether the Supreme Court (SC) took suo motu notice of the issue or if the human rights cell had ever pursued the issue as a matter of public concern.

The IHC registrar’s office had raised an objection on the petition.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2012.