Parliament, military, judiciary should take fresh oath of allegiance to democracy, says Achakzai

Lawmakers seek probe into May 12, 2007 carnage in Karachi

ISLAMABAD: Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) on Thursday said the military, judiciary and Parliament should take a fresh oath of allegiance to democracy. 

The National Assembly minus opposition parties remembered the May 12, 2007 carnage which was committed on arrival of then Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in Karachi, demanding inquiry into killing of innocent people and loss of public and private property.

“It was the darkest day of our history when lawyers among over 50 were killed on May 12, 2007,” the parliamentarians while speaking on points of order said. Mehmood Khan Achakzai raised the issued after resumption of proceedings, which earlier were suspended due to lack of quorum.

The PTI member Murad Saeed pointed out lack of quorum following walkout of opposition parties from the House. “We will not attend proceedings till Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif come to the House and respond to our questionnaire,” Naveed Qamar while speaking on a point of order soon after start of proceedings said.

Achakzai regretted that neither any inquiry was conducted into the May 12 carnage nor families of those, who lost their lives and whose property was damaged, were compensated.  Shah Jee Gul Afridi from Fata wanted the chair to give ruling with regard to inquiry into the May 12, 2007 killings in Karachi. “The people from Pakhtun community were also targeted on that day,” he said.

Khawaja Saad Rafique of the PML-N recalled that eight years back a dictator with support of a party tried to stop a movement which was aimed at restoration of judiciary. He pointed out at that he requested the MQM leader Dr  Farooq Sattar to call off a rally which was planned on arrival of then chief justice on that particular day but they went ahead with their plans as they were under pressure from a dictator.

“The political parties should not become a tool in hands of any military dictator,” Saad Rafique said, adding that it was now an understood fact that dictatorship was not a solution to country’s problems.

Without naming any political party, the PML-N member said he would also request the parties’ leadership that they should not play with fire and refrain from crossing the red line. “The two mainstream political parties have learnt the lesson and same is expected from others,” he said.

Maulana Amir Zaman of the JUI-F and Mian Tariq Mehmood from PML-N called for investigations into the May 12, 2007 carnage, saying the political parties should learn from the past.