The ministry of Human Rights and Justice remains silent and stationary on a horrifying incident in April 9, that saw two lawyers, two women, another man and one child burned alive in a Karachi lawyers office building. Several other people were also killed in the violence that day (April 9, 2008); a result of attacks on members of the Karachi Bar Association, by workers allegedly backed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (a coalition partner in President Musharrafs government).
The fighting was over the restoration of Pakistans former Chief Justice and the beating of former minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Dr Sher Afgan Niazi, which had been blamed on lawyers. It later transpired that in fact government henchmen were behind Niazis injuries.
After making numerous promises to initiate an impartial inquiry, the government has done nothing.
The killings were covered in detail by the media, with most accusations leveled at members of MQM. Just one day before, the groups leader Altaf Hussain had verbally abused Pakistans lawmakers and urged MQM to thwart their support of Chief Justice Iftekhar Choudhry. In the following hours the offices, houses and even cars of office bearers of bar associations were burned and ransacked. Hundreds converged on the citys courts and fighting broke out in earnest, during which a room was set alight and locked, with five people still inside. Reporters covering the chaos including one female reporter-camerawoman were beaten severely and their cameras destroyed. For reference please see our statement, http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2008statements/1470/
The MQM were openly held culpable for the horrific killings in several meetings; including those of bar associations, journalists and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), yet officially, no perpetrators have been charged. It is worth noting that the MQM members were also widely suspected in an incident on May 12, 2007, that saw 40 people killed during a visit by the Chief Justice to Karachi.
The new Sindh government has tried to shift the blame to the Inter-services Intelligence agencies (I.S.I), firing its provincial head, Brigadier Huda. However it has not appointed a commission to probe the murders, nor produced Huda for trial. Instead, the newly elected Federal and Sindh provincial governments have chosen to bargain with the MQM and offer them ministerial positions in their cabinets. Needless to say, this presents a new level of danger for lawyers, journalists and other liberal and democratic organizations in the country. It seems the burning and killing of ones rivals and the beating of journalists is to be rewarded under the new government. Burning lawyers alive, it is suggested, is a trifling matter, and not one grave enough to interrupt political reconciliation.
This is not so. While every political group has the right to negotiate with another, crimes are crimes and should be dealt with according to the laws of the country.
The Asian Human Rights Commission demands that the newly elected government immediately constitute a high level commission to probe the incidences of the burning and killing of lawyers, and other innocent persons. It is the duty of the government to investigate the heinous crimes of killings by powerful groups regardless of their political affiliation, not to indulge itself in political expediency. That murder can take place so publicly and on such a horrific scale and still go unanswered for in Pakistan, is a sign of severe dysfunction within the country.
