It is our national duty to punish murders of more than 50 innocent people who lost their lives and we demand complete independent judicial probe of 12th May, 2007 mayhem at Karachi, reiterates Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Awami National Party (ANP) and the lawyers community.
Quaid of PML-N Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif demanded independent probe of the 12th May carnage in Karachi. "The MQM must clarify its stand on Murree Declaration, Charter of Democracy and the 12th May Karachi mayhem before it could be included in the federal coalition government", he told his party men.
Talking to Business Recorder, PML (N) spokesman Siddiqul Farooq said on Saturday that instead of PPP, the MQM should seek forgiveness of the nation especially of those whose sons and daughters were killed on that fateful day.
The ANP provincial president and parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly Shahi Sayed said on Saturday that his party could not forget the 12th May massacre and would like to settle it in accordance with Pukhtoon traditions.
Talking to newsmen after taking oath as a member of the Sindh Assembly, Shahi said the PPP and MQM could forgive each other and bury the past, but the ANP could not do so.
A strong Pakhtoon community inhibits the multicultural and ethnicity cosmopolitan Karachi City which has for the first time elected two ANP members of the Sindh Assembly. The PML (N) and ANP are coalition partners of PPP in the federal government and provincial governments of NWFP, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan.
Shahi said if the PPP decided to share power with MQM in Sindh, then his party would reconsider its political strategy. Asfandyar Wali and Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, ANP central leaders have also expressed their reservations over political alliance with MQM.
It may be recalled that the deposed Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmad had taken the suo moto of killing of some 52 people on May 12, 2007 the day when deposed Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry went to Karachi to address the Sindh High Court Bar Association. Over 200 people were injured in the free for all riots while all roads leading to Sindh High Court building from Karachi airport had been blocked.
After the 3rd November's judicial change, bench headed by Chief Justice, Afzal Soomro took up the case and Sindh High Court Bar Association president Rasheed A Rizvi representing the lawyers appeared before the court. Rizvi in his statement contended that the lawyers do not recognise the incumbent judges of the Supreme and High Courts, therefore he will not argue on the case. The bench has recently disposed of the case.
Commenting on the disposal of the case, Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Aitzaz Ahsan said that responsibility of 12th May mayhem lies on the then coalition government of MQM and PML (Q) and the perpetrators of such a heinous crime must be exposed and punished. He added that more than 250 innocent people including lawyers were killed and injured and a civilised society could not let such gruesome incidents go uninvestigated and unpunished.
He said that the lawyers' community would not accept formula being floated by Aiwan-e-Sadar through Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum to thwart the Murree Declaration between the PPP and PML (N) under which the coalition is committed to restore the pre-2nd November 2007 judiciary.