KARACHI: The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) on Friday resumed hearing Karachi law and order case for the third consecutive day at its registry here, Geo News reported.
A five-member larger bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry is hearing the case. The bench has summoned former Custom Collector over the issue of transportation of arms.
During the hearing, CJ questioned the Director General Rangers Sindh, Major General Rizwan Akhtar that from where the weapons come from, it doesn’t fall from the sky.
On this, the DG Sindh Rangers replied that the issue of missing 19,000 arms containers came into limelight many years ago. He further told that those containers arrived and were opened during the time period of former minister for ports and shipping.
The same weapon is being used in Karachi and the city is burning due to the same reason. Moreover, different agencies are investigating about that ammunition, DG Rangers told.
He apprised the bench that local, German and American 9mm pistols are used in the targeted killings, and that the arms sent to the factories of Peshawar and Darra Adam Khel were imported.
Further hearing is currently underway in the court.
Before the hearing, Bena Khalid- wife of a missing man named Khalid- staged a sit-in outside the Karachi Registry. The CJ took note of the protest and ordered the concerned authorities to solve her case.
The CJ’s secretary, on behalf of the Chief Justice, requested Bena Khalid to end her protest and asked her to submit an application. Replying to this, Bena told that she had already filed the application thrice and showed reluctance in filing it again.
She said that she will continue to protest until she will be allowed to meet the Chief Justice.
On Thursday, the CJ observed that criminals were using sophisticated weapons arms than the security forces. Advocate General Sindh conceded that the sophisticated weapons being used by criminals were not locally made.
The federal government submitted its report in the court in which it contended that a full-fledged operation in Lyari might open an additional front and could unleash a new wave of violence.
However, the federal government maintained that action should be taken against a group known as the Mohajir Republican Army.
The report was filed by the Attorney General for Pakistan on behalf of the Ministry of Interior.
The report said that over a period of time, criminal gangs had matured into formidable syndicates which had developed alliances with terrorist cells.
The federal government submitted that Karachi was confronted with multi-dimensional threats compounded by its rapid urbanisation and the major threats were in the form of terrorism, targeted assassinations, sectarian and ethnic killings besides other forms of organised crime.
Unfortunately, it said, that various facets of these syndicates had succeeded in developing political patronage in various forms. Being lucrative, crimes like smuggling narcotics, arms, land grabbing and extortion had become common and routine.
The report said that these alliances had cemented over the previous decade or so and extremely careful and responsible handling was required to disentangle the situation.
