Karachi violence: SC concerned over delays in prosecuting suspects

CJ’s primary concern remains whether target killings have stopped.

KARACHI:

The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over law enforcement agencies’ failure in prosecuting 10,000 suspects arrested during the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi over the last six months.

A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, conducted the hearing of the Karachi law and order suo motu implementation case at the SC’s Karachi Registry on Monday. Other members included Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.

At the outset of the hearing, Justice Jillani asked Advocate General Abdul Fateh Malik about the progress made by law enforcers to improve the law and order situation since the apex court passed directions during the last session on November 26, 2013.

Malik claimed that the situation has since improved, however the judges confronted him saying that the killings are being reported daily and citizens are apprehensive.

Justice Jillani questioned why action against illegal migrants had not been taken under the Foreigners Act. To this, Malik said the concerned department had been activated, but that “such a huge number of aliens cannot be just dumped into the sea.”

The chief justice was more interested in knowing if the senseless target killings had stopped or not. “I have been informed that since the targeted operation started [in Karachi] the average number of killing that was 116 per month has been reduced to 78,” he said, questioning if this has not stopped.

Malik replied that the conviction rate in the cases registered under the Arms Act is zero in the city, because the courts, which were conferred special powers to only decide the cases under the Arms Act, preferred other cases already pending.

To this, the bench questioned how many charge-sheets were filed against the 10,000 suspects and then submitted to trial courts to prove them guilty and proceed with the matter.

Mehmood and Malik, requested for time to file such details in the court.

Additional IG Karachi Shahid Hayat informed the court that 923 people were killed – including 422 in targeted attacks, 428 for personal enmity, 48 during robberies and 25 in bomb blasts – during the 169 days since the operation was launched on September 5 last year.

Charge-sheets against 7,624 suspects have been filed in the concerned courts, he informed, adding that charge-sheets in 175 cases were submitted to anti-terrorism courts.

This led the judges to believe that the law and order situation in the city would not improve unless criminals are effectively prosecuted by the police.

Justice Khilji, who was irritated by the AG’s argument, asked how many of the 10,000 criminals arrested during the operation have successfully been prosecuted by the prosecuting agencies.

They noted with concern that six months have lapsed since the targeted operations were launched and cautioned that the criminals would continue to operate from within the prisons by using mobile phones if the charge-sheets are not submitted against them.

The court directed the IG police to submit a report detailing how many charge-sheets against criminals arrested during the operation have been filed with the trial courts. It also demanded to be told the current status of the trial.

Land mafia

The judges however remarked that the previous state lands were being illegally occupied under the head of the agencies themselves. They said the former head of the anti-encroachment force, SSP Irfan Bahadur, himself was nominated as accused in various cases of land grabbing.

CJ Tassaduq Hussain Jillani directed the senior member of the Sindh board of revenue to submit a report explaining how many institutions and private individuals were issued notices to vacate the state lands illegally occupied by them, and current status of cases filed by the revenue authorities against such persons in the courts. SSP anti-encroachment force Arif Aziz was summoned personally with report on action taken for removal of encroachments.

Earlier, Sindh board of revenue?s officer, Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Zulfiqar Shah, submitted a detailed report, saying with the assistance of satellite imagery of GIS Section, illegal occupancy of government land has been identified. It is verified that an area of 52,1032 acres is illegally occupied by various federal and provincial government institutions while 7672 acres by private persons. An action is being taken to remove the illegal encroachments and Anti Encroachment Police Force, headed by SSP Arif Aziz, has been entrusted with the task.

Nazar Muhammad Leghari, the consultant of the Board of Revenue, also filed a report saying that there is a law in place in Sindh called the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Act, 2010 which provides issuance of notices to illegal occupants before an action is taken. Therefore, notices have been issued to the illegal occupants of state lands, he added but was not in a position to give details of the number of notices issued and whether those have been challenged in courts of competent jurisdiction and a stay order has been issued against those notices or not.

The bench issued a notice to the Senior member of the Board of Revenue to submit a detailed report about the notices issued in terms of the above and the fate of those notices. Meanwhile, SSP Arif Aziz of the Anti Encroachment Police, was ordered to appear along with a progress report on the next date.

Tax duties, illegal SIMs

Attorney general Salman Aslam Butt informed that a commission, as proposed by the apex court earlier for assessing the recovery and evasion of duties on imports, could not yet be constituted. However, the Federal Board of Revenue has proposed the names of officers to perform technical, financial and judicial tasks. Similarly, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has not yet filed the report of the task force constituted on SC orders to deal with the issue of illegal mobile SIMs.

The bench exempted him from appearance on next hearing, asking him to depute one of his deputies, who is well prepared to proceed with the matter on next date of hearing.

A lawyer, Akbar Ali, informed that the PTA would file its report during the course of the day.

The five-member bench would take up the matter on Wednesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 25^th, 2014.