[Dawn] The gruesome murder of scores of people in a massive kaboom in Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
forced the Supreme Court on Monday to observe that the federal and provincial governments had failed to protect the life and property of citizens.
Taking a suo motu
...a legal term, from the Latin. Roughly translated it means
I saw what you did, you bastard...
notice on the incident, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry summoned a comprehensive reply from Advocate General of Sindh Abdul Fateh Malik and fixed the matter on Wednesday before its Karachi registry where a bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Moslem is hearing a number of cases.
"An appropriate order after hearing all concerned is required to be passed," the chief justice observed while deciding an office note initiated by SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain.
This is the second such suo motu notice. On Feb 18 the court had taken notice of the unabated killings of the Hazara Shia community in Quetta.
Citing newspaper reports, the office note carried gory details of the carnage which claimed the lives of 45 people and left 150 others injured in the Shia-dominated neighbourhood of Abbas Town on Sunday. Several women and kiddies were among the dead.
After the bombing, the note said, members of the Shia community erupted into the streets against law-enforcement agencies and the government and demanded the arrest of the killers. Mourners gathered in different areas of the city and set on fire a bus on M.A. Jinnah Road. The situation in many areas is tense.
It was reported, the note said, that law-enforcement personnel and government officials had not reached the venue of the blast in time for rescue and relief work because they were busy in providing security/protocol to high-ups at a private function.
It said that after the two consecutive kabooms in Quetta this equally shocking carnage should serve as an eye-opener. "The incidents in Quetta led to the sacking of the provincial government, with calls also made for replacement of civil administration by the armed forces, to provide security to inhabitants," the note recalled. It said that being a major disaster causing 45 deaths and 150 maimed with enormous loss/destruction of property, it was a serious violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 9, 14, 23 and 24 of the Constitution.