Sixteen people killed as Karachi goes up in flames

Karachi, May 12 (UNI) The port city was in flames today as 16 people were killed and many seriously injured in clashes between the supporters of sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhmmad Chaudhry and pro-government Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) soon after the arrival of the top judge here.

The situation in the city was tense and Justice Chaudhary was still inside the airport with a team of at least 25 lawyers.

Pakistan's Geo TV reported lawyers as saying that they would take a decision on whether to go ahead with the programme of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) to be addressed by Justice Chaudhry.

Radical Jamat-e-Islami also made a similar claim, saying one of its workers was killed in an indiscriminate firing by MQM, representing Urdu speaking people, who migrated to Pakistan from India in 1947.

Dozens of vehicles and a petrol pump near the Karachi airport were also reportedly torched, as Justice Chaudhry waited inside airport for his supporters to escort him to the Sindh High Court building.

Hundreds of lawyers, Islamists and activists of secular parties, which had announced to accord a historic welcome to Justice Chaudhry were barred from going to the airport to receive the suspended chief jurist.

''We will not go to the high court building until our hosts are allowed to come to the airport and receive the chief justice,'' Chaudhry's senior lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters in Karachi.

He said the decision to prevent the chief justice from proceeding to the high court building had proven that the government had no writ and authority in this city.

A helicopter was also made available by the provincial government at the airport to airlift Chaudhry to the high court but he said he would go by road.

''We are ready to facilitate Justice Chaudhry's movement,'' provincial home secretary Ghulam Muhammad Mohtaram told Geo TV.

SHCBA president Abrar Hassan said alleged that the provincial government hired ''goons'' to sabotage Justice Chaudhry's rally in Karachi, a stronghold of the MQM which is also holding separate rallies all over Karachi.

Witnesses said police and paramilitary rangers failed to control the situation and disappeared from their areas of deployment after firing broke out in Karachi, which has been a hot bed of sectarian and extremist related violence since early 1990s.

''Activists of radical Islamic groups and opposition parties opened fire in several areas and killed at least six MQM workers,'' advisor to provincial home ministry Wasim Akhtar claimed.

Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf had sacked Justice Chaudhry on March 9, a move that triggered countrywide protests, which turned violent in many cities including Islamabad on March 16.

Alleging Chaudhry for misuse of power, Musharraf sent a reference against him to the council of top judges, known as the Supreme Judicial Council, which held eight meetings before its proceedings were stayed by a larger bench of the Supreme Court on May 7 on a petition filed by the former top judge.

In his petition, Chaudhry, who was sent on forced leave on March 15, challenged his own suspension as well as constitution and competence of the SJC to try him.

A 14-member full court is scheduled to hear Chaudhry's petition on May 14.

UNI