My 1st post: Unfortunate Karachites

Since this is my first post, so i should introduce myself, write abt some hi-tech stuff or anything that has amazed me over sometime But after what has happened in Karachi on 12th of May, i cannot stop thinking who's the culprit and even more important is the question that will the terrorists who are responsible for killing 41! and wounding 160! other people be ever brought to justice?

Karachi, the former capital of Pakistan, is the economic hub of Pakistan. It produces about 70% revenue of the entire country and is also one of the most largest cities in the World. People from all over the Pakistan reside in Khi, my father himself has been in touch with a lot of businessmen from Punjab and NWFP who do their businesses in Khi. However unfortunately major part of the city is underdeveloped and shabby. Majority of the Karachites are even without the basic necessities of life. Water is scarce in Sindh but specifically in Karachi, its a rare commodity. Karachi suffers from electricity shortage more than any other city in Pakistan. Inflation has made the lives of ordinary people a problem. But these are only some of the problems that Karachites face in their daily life, the biggest one if you ask any Karachite is Security Or lack of Security. There is no police in khi and even if its there, its not there to do its duty. Its there to harass the motorcyclists, the bus drivers and women.

Why did poor innocent 41 men lost their lives on the streets of Karachi? Who is responsible for their martyrdom? I would love to shed some light on the political background of what happened and why it happened. Obviously i am not a politician and in no way affiliated with any political party, so all these views and opinions are impartial and based on my limited knowledge of Pakistan's politics and its attitude over the last few years:

Until March, General Pervaiz Musharraf (GPM) was enjoying his life and his presidentship with all its joys. A typical Army-minded decision changed all this. A petition was filed against the then Chief Justice (CJ) of Pakistan Mr Ifitkhar Chaudry. March 9, 2007 in the morning he was asked by GPM to meet him. He was busy in the proceedings of the court and then after settling the issues in Supreme Court (SC), the CJ went to the Army Camp meet Musharraf. Photos of their meetings were shown on the media. One notorious one showed GPM sitting in Army Uniform with other high rank Generals, all of them as well in Army uniforms, but with CJ visibly in quite a distressed & disturbed mood. This footage set the
Lawyers Community (LC) on Fire. Well a lot of lawyers and previous CJs of Pakistan tried to gather outside the SC but SC's doors were closed by PK Army men! After about 7 hrs the CJ was allowed to leave Army camp and during that time, a new CJ namely Mr. Javaid Iqbal has taken oath!

According to a large number of the former CJs and LCs, there were one major problem with the entire scenario. The problem being this entire change a/c to them was Unconstitutional. They said until the Charges against him are proved true, he cannot be removed from his position. The example that they gave was that if some petition was filed against a serving president, is the president removed from his position even before the proof of charges? There were also a lot of other questions floating in media. A few noticeable ones are:

• What was going on inside the army camp during those seven hours?
• Why did the GPM show such haste in appointing a new CJ, although the next deserving CJ Mr Bhagwandas was on a foreign trip?
• Why were GPM in uniform while talking to CJ? Does he wear the same uniform when he meets Mr. Bush?
• Wasnt he the same justice who had stopped the illegal sale of Steel Mill of Pakistan?
• Wasnt he the same justice who was continuously pressing on the secret agencies of Pakistan part. the ISI to give detailed reports on the whereabouts of the hundreds of Pakistan citizens missing? Many political analysts believe this was the major reason for his disliking amongst govt sectors which finally resulted into his removal
• Btw these pakistani citizens that are about hundreds in number have been missing since a long time specifically after 9/11. Thier families have been crying for years; however Govt. has turned a deaf ear to the pleading poor families. Many people think they are abducted by ISI and then questioned by them or either handed to CIA which are then usu. taken to CIA Torture Prisons operated in Egypt or in Europe. This was confirmed by One AUSTRALIAN MUSLIM who was captured in PK and then handed to CIA, taken to Egypt and..... He told his entire story infront of the Australian parliament at which the Aussie govt strongly protested to the US govt.

Now the opposition parties jumped into the scene. The noticeable ones in the earlier phase were Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), PML-N and Tehreek-e-Insaaf. However still PPP and JUI seemed to be disinterested in what was happening and if we consider what was the political stage at that time, this entire scenario seems pretty clarified. There were rumours everyother day that a deal between PPP and govt was in final stages. The leader of JUI Mr. Fazal-ur-Rehman also was pursuing active interest to form an alliance with the govt. And most important of all both PPP and JUI like the local people of Pakistan considered this event of removal of CJ as just one of the ordinary dirty and unjust political events in Pakistan.

Everybody was taken by surprise. Just in a few days, every LC and every Bar Council of Pakistan had spoken out in favor of removed CJ and not only this they had started protesting. The numbers in their daily protest started to increase. Lawyers all over Pakistan boycotted the court proceedings and demanded that the petition should be taken back immediately. I think the early protests in Punjab and Sindh had only about a few hundred lawyers and then soon the number sprang to thousands which not only involved LCs but also the political party activists from the entire opposition. Now the opposition parties had realized that this is the time they had been waiting for! One of the interesting articles in a british newspaper i read had said the CJ of Pakistan had done what the opposition political parties had failed to do in past 7 yrs! There are claims that a large number of ordinary people also actively participated in these protests, however in my opinion, its just a political statement. At first the govt of Punjab tried to stop this by force but after seeing an alarming increase in the number of protestors, they wisely stayed away from usage of any power. The phone calls to the TV talk shows and articles in newspaper clearly showed that people were on the side of former CJ.

There is one very interesting story that i found out on a private news channel and would like to share it with you. There is one very highly respectable former CJ of PAK namely Mr. Fakharudin Ibrahim. He was hired on the same day by the govt to be their lawyer on the same day when the so-called petition was filed. He says when i went to Islamabad, i was shocked. There were no charges against the removed CJ. He was infuriarated and he immediately refused to act as the federal lawyer!

I would love to write more but its about 2:30 am in the morning, so to be continued...