KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the provincial government to furnish a reply in connection with a petition of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) against targeted killings of lawyers.
A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan was seized with the petition of the SHCBA filed by its president Mustafa Lakhani.
The SHCBA president had stated that the law and order situation in Karachi was deteriorating and the life and property of citizens, including lawyers, were not safe.
He stated that since 2007 over 40 lawyers had been killed in the city, adding that law-enforcers had failed to restore peace to the city.
He submitted that whenever a member of the police or some other government official was killed in any incident of violence, the victim’s family was compensated.
However, he added that advocates had been targeted in the city, but their heirs were not compensated.
The petitioner said that orders of the high court regarding awarding of death sentence to convicts were not implemented.
He stated that lives of prisoners on death row were being stretched by not executing them, which, according to him, encouraged other criminals to commit crimes.
During the hearing on Thursday, the IG of Sindh police through a written reply informed the court that out of 29 cases of targeted killings of lawyers, in 15 cases the killers had been arrested and charge-sheeted in courts, however, remaining cases were under investigation.
Meanwhile, the court directed the provincial government to file comments.
Notice to KMC administrator
The Sindh High Court on Thursday once again directed the administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to appear in person in court over non-payment of salaries to thousands of employees of the KMC.
A division bench headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan was hearing the petition of the KMC employees union, Sajjan Union, and others who had moved the court against the provincial government and the KMC administration for non-payment of salaries and pensions to over 50,000 employees.
Earlier, the court had directed the administrator of the KMC to appear in person in court on Thursday.—PPI