CJP asks for May 12 Karachi incidents case file

KARACHI: While hearing multiple cases of public concern in Karachi registry on Saturday, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar asked about the case of 11-year-old May 12 violent clashes in Karachi and summoned the case file.

Chief Justice inquired from Advocate Faisal Siddiqui whether any investigation into 12 May incidents was carried out. The counsel informed the CJP that the case has been pending before the Sindh High Court.

“Give us the case number, we will review it ourselves”, the chief justice demanded.

Earlier, the chief justice asked to pray for the martyrs of the May 12 violent incidents and recalled the clashes as the tragedy.

May 12 Violence:

The May 12, 2007 is also infamous as Black Saturday riots in the history of Karachi, when the then suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry arrived at the Jinnah International Airport of Karachi.

Two rival rallies organized on that day; one by the lawyers bodies backed by the opposition political parties to welcome chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, and the other by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a coalition partner of the Musharraf-led government, against “politicization” of judicial reference against the chief justice.

Around 43 people died as a result of violent clashes between pro-government activists and supporters of former chief justice.

It is a coincident, that today, 11 years after 12 May 2007 incidents, the incumbent Chief Justice of Pakistan arrived Karachi, on the same date to hear the cases of public concern in a relatively peaceful city in a harmonious environment.