ISLAMABAD: Nearly three years and four months after the Sindh High Court (SHC) of Pakistan had summoned MQM Chief Altaf Hussain, the Supreme Court has asked the exiled political leader to appear before the court in person on January 7, 2012, in a contempt of court notice.
A two-member division bench of the SHC on August 20, 2009 had directing Altaf to appear before it on August 31, 2009, in connection with the May 12, 2007, violent clashes in Karachi.
The fresh notice has been issued to 59 years old Altaf Hussain under Article 204 of the Constitution and Section 3 of the Contempt of Court Law, just days after he had termed the judges’ remarks as ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘undemocratic,’ airing further that the court’s observations were contempt for the mandate given by the people of Karachi and were nothing short of an ‘open enmity’ for the metropolitan. On August 20, 2009, the two-member SHC bench, comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Muhammad Athar Saeed, had also summoned former President General Pervez Musharraf to appear before it on August 31, 2009, but neither Altaf nor Musharraf had turned up in line with the directives.
At that time, the SHC was hearing a petition that had asked for General Musharraf to be made a respondent, on account of violence that had rocked Karachi in May 12, 2007 — the day when Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had visited the port city in a deposed state, but could not step out of the airport due to the blood being shed unabated in the streets of country’s largest city.
Former provincial Home Minister and another MQM leader Wasim Akhtar was also summoned in the SHC on August 20, 2009.
The three miscellaneous petitions in this context were filed by lawyer Iqbal Kazmi, who had taken the stance that the May 12, 2007, carnage had occurred on the directives of the then president, Musharraf.
The complainant had stated in his petitions that around 55 persons, including his relatives, had lost their lives in the May 12 incident, contending further that on the very same day former President Musharraf had addressed a mammoth rally, calling it as a ‘show of muscle’ in Karachi.
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