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Dozens of May 12 carnage cases yet to be concluded
By Zaib Azkaar Hussain
Karachi
Dozens of cases pertaining to violence and killings of innocent citizens on May 12, 2007 are pending with the courts.
However the Karachi Police Chief has disclosed that several suspects of killings have been arrested since the past three months. The police chief (Additional Inspector General Amir Ahmed Shaikh) stated some 65 cases were registered and 36 charge sheets of these cases were being submitted in the courts concerned.
The police department also released a six-month performance report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the May 12 massacre cases that said the police made further arrests on the incidents of mass killings took place on May 12, 2007.
He pointed out that some three culprits were sentenced. Besides the letters were dispatched to some media houses and other institutions for evidence and footages purposes.
On the other different political parties including the ruling one (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and Jamat-e-Islami (JI) have been raising voice on the issue. The lawyers including those represented by the Sindh High Court Bas Association (SHBA) Karachi Bar Association (KBA) and Malir Bar Association (MBA) have also been observing ‘black day’ across the country against to register their voice against the tragic killings and violent acts took place on May 12, 2007.
It may be mentioned that on May 07, 2007, the famous road called Shahra-e-Faisal had become a battlefield when opponent political groups clashed with each other soon after the arrival of the then Chief Justice of Pakistan (Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry). Due to the clashes of political workers, the former chief justice did not move ahead from the lounge of the airport and returned to Islamabad without addressing a lawyers’ convention at Sindh High Court. However later on the then chief justice though took up the matter but no any significant developments could be taken place. Earlier, the then chief justice had played a very clear role in entertaining the request of the lawyers to address a huge gathering of city lawyers but instead the incidents of killings and blockage of the city roads had left no options but to go back.
The main road was to be used by the procession of the then chief justice but was made completely unreachable to commuters as all the intersections were blocked by large containers and trucks.
Former President Pervez Musharraf was termed by the politicians of the country to play a very negative role that led deadly clashes.
It was claimed that dozens of people (27 to 50) were killed and around 140 others received serious injuries as the miscreants attacked people going to the airport. Later
In August 2016 hours before he was officially confirmed as Karachi’s latest mayor, Waseem Akhtar was nominated as an accused in cases related to the May 12, 2007 carnage in an interim charge sheet that was accepted by the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts (ATC) with directives for submission of final charges at the earliest.
Along with Akhtar, 56 other people including MPAs Muhammad Adnan and Kamran Farooqui were also named.
It was claimed that a man Aslam alias Kala was among the accused who was allegedly arrested on information disclosed by Akhtar who himself was arrested along with several others allegedly involved in the carnage cases.
As per the charge sheet, the city’s new mayor has confessed to being involved in the mass rioting on May 12, 2007, and the administrative judge was told that police have gathered concrete evidence to prove Akhtar’s role in the violence.
Brought to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) office to cast his vote, Akhtar on the other hand, asserted that the all cases against him were groundless and politically motivated. All the development occurred at a time when the then chief of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Altaf Hussain had been declared a leader who chanted anti-country slogans and instigated others to attack the media houses etc. Almost all MQM leaders in Pakistan had parted ways from his politics and formed another party headed by Dr Farooq Sattar that later led further differences and emerged another party headed by Dr Maqbool Siddiqui. Mayor Waseem Akhtar who was nominated in a bunch of cases (even other than carnages cases) was later on granted bail either by the concerned Anti-terrorism Courts (ATCs) or Sindh High Court (SHC).
Another under detention leader of Pasban, Usman Moazzam, was also nominated in the May 12 case, while Saleem Shehzad – a suspended member of the MQM – was declared an absconder who reached Pakistan and was produced before the court for several cases but ailing leader died in 2018 while he was in London (on courts’ permission) for medical treatment.
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