SHC CJ excuses himself from hearing May 12 mayhem case

The Sindh High Court’s (SHC) chief justice on Tuesday excused himself from hearing a petition seeking formation of a larger bench to hear the May 12, 2007 violence case and a plea for protection for the petitioner and his family.

SHC Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah directed the court office to fix the petition for hearing before another bench of which he was not a member, since the petition could not be placed before him.

The court had admitted the application for an urgent hearing in the previous hearing, held last week.

More than 50 persons were killed in shootings and attacks on political parties and lawyers’ rallies that wanted to welcome the deposed chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, on his arrival at the Karachi airport for a visit to the city on May 12 nine years ago.

Filing a miscellaneous application, Syed Iqbal Kazmi submitted that the high court had restored his petition for a hearing over charges related to the May 12 carnage and directed the police to provide protection to him. 

He said he survived an assassination attempt in June 2012, and his nephew, cousins and other associates had been killed in terrorism incidents for filing the May 12 case.  He maintained that he had been forced to withdraw the petition when he was in jail after being implicated in  false cases at the behest of the previous government.

He prayed to the court to reconstitute a full bench to hear the case and order the provision of necessary protection to him and his family. A division bench, headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, granted the urgent application for a hearing and fixed the matter for November 22.

Narrating the incidents of violence of May 12, the petition says the then home secretary and the IGP had violated the court’s order for the provision of security to the deposed chief justice of Pakistan during his visit to Karachi.

It adds that mobs had laid siege to buildings of the Sindh High Court and the City Courts, and manhandled lawyers. It says that the government had failed to protect the life, liberty, freedom of movement and other fundamental rights of citizens. The petition requests the court to initiate contempt proceedings against then home adviser Waseem Akhtar for issuing derogatory remarks against the chief justice.