Karachi mayor indicted in May 12 carnage case

KARACHI: Mayor Waseem Akhtar was indicted by an anti-terrorism court Tuesday along with the other suspects in the May 12 carnage case, Geo News reported. Akhtar, a leader of the MQM-P, appeared in court along with the other accused. The accused could not be indicted in the other cases related to the May 12 violence owing to the absence of legal counsel. However, the court indicted them in one case and summoned witnesses to record their statements at the next hearing. The hearing was then adjourned until June 23. Talking to media after the hearing, Waseem Akhtar, who served as the home adviser when the May 12, 2007 violence took place, said there should be impartial investigations into the real perpetrators of violence. Calling for an end to fake cases, the mayor said they are not the one to run away and will face the courts. He recalled that after becoming mayor he was nominated in dozens of cases as part of political vendetta. On May 12, 2007, around 50 people were killed and hundreds injured as clashes broke out in the city between rival political groups after a visit of the then chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. Akhtar was elected mayor of Karachi in August 2016 while he was in jail on judicial remand in various cases.