JUI-F to stage rally in Red Zone on Sept 1 despite ban

Leaders have been protesting to force govt to transfer Soomro murder case to military court

Karachi

Although the Sindh government has imposed a ban on staging protest rallies in Karachi’s security Red Zone, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) is determined to organise a rally from Numaish Chowrangi to the Chief Minister House on September 1 to show its anger at the provincial government for its failure to transfer the murder case of the party’s provincial secretary general, Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, to a military court.

On November 29, 2014, Soomro, who was also a former member of the Senate, was shot dead at the Jamia Haqania seminary in Sukkur while he was leaving after offering Fajr prayers.

Maulana Amjad Khan, the JUI-F’s central acting secretary general, said that if the Sindh government did not meet his party’s demands, including the transfer of the Soomro murder case to a military court and an end to protection of his killers, by August 30, the party would stage rallies across the city and the rest of the province and the protesters would gather at Numaish Chowrangi at 2pm on September 1 for the protest march towards the Chief Minister House. “By imposing Section 144 in Karachi’s Red Zone, the Sindh government cannot stop tens of thousands of workers,” Khan told The News on Friday.

The JUI-F’s Sindh leadership had announced the date of the protest two months ago in a meeting in Karachi so that the government could be forced to fulfil its promise to solve the murder case and remove the party’s concerns, he said. However, no one from government consulted the party leadership, he added.

On December 26 last year, the JUI-F had organised sit-ins on highways throughout the province to hinder caravans from moving towards Larkana for the December 27 death anniversary of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto. Those sit-ins forced the government to sign a written undertaking with JUI-F leaders to end their protest. 

The undertaking stated that the government would send the Soomro murder case to a military court for trial by January 7 after completing the codal formalities and the JUI-F would not organise any sit-in until January 26. “Despite the passage of one and a half years, the Sindh government did not fulfil its promise of arresting the culprits,” Khan said.

He alleged that instead of arresting the plotters in the murder case, the government was supporting the murderers and plotters and offering them VIP protocol in jails. “We don’t trust the Sindh government and that is why the party wants the case to be transferred to a military court,” he said.

Police have arrested five suspects – Hanif Bhutto, Mushtaq Mehar, Sarang Chandio, Darya Khan Jamali and Altaf Jamali – after a case was registered at SITE Police Station in Sukkur.

Besides, the murderers, the plotters and facilitators would also be brought to justice by the military court, he hoped.

Barrister Murtaza Wahab, adviser to chief minister on law, was not available to talk on the matter. However, a PPP lawmaker who is familiar with the developments in the Soomro murder case told The News that the government had approved a summary for sending the case to a military court. “But the heirs of the suspects requested the Sukkur bench of the Sindh High Court not to send the case immediately to a military court and thus the court had upheld a stay order,” he said, adding that later the court ended the stay order.

He said government representatives would soon meet JUI-F leaders and request them to cancel September 1 rally.