Karachi violence suo moto verdict today

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court today will announce its verdict on the law and order situation in Karachi which had shaken and disrupted financial activities in the country's largest city regarded as the economic backbone of national economy.

The Supreme Court will announce the reserved judgment in Islamabad in a suo motu case No16 of 2011 and Constitution petition Nos. 60 and 61 of 2011 (regarding law and order situation in Karachi) on October 6, at 1:00pm.

The Court has already informed all the concerned persons including the counsel for parties, Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq , President of the Supreme Court Bar Association Ms Asma Jehangir, President of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Anwar Mansoor, Sindh Advocate General Fateh Malik, the Prosecutor General and Inspector General of Police, Sindh, that the judgment would be announced on Thursday.

The Chief Justice had taken suo moto notice on incidents of relentless killing of innocent people in Karachi by constituting a five-judge special bench on August 5.

After holding a series of proceedings in Karachi, a special bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, had reserved its verdict on September 15.

The Supreme Court had also ordered the Sindh government to submit investigation reports of all criminal cases registered on a daily basis and ordered it to provide necessary assistance to all law-enforcement agencies to stop the killing of innocent and poor people and to restore law and order in the city.

The apex court had also ordered trial courts hearing cases of criminals and target killers arrested during raids, to expeditiously dispose of the cases, especially those related to target killings.

The bench had also directed the police chiefs to eliminate the menace of extortion money (bhata) in all parts of the port city.