PRESENT SPREE OF MASS KILLINGS OF MOHAJIRS IS THE RESULT OF THE INABILITY OF THE PRIME MINISTER TO PROSECUTE CULPRITS AS ENVISAGED IN THE 1997 SUPREME COURT JUDGEMENT: ALTAF HUSSAIN

London: August 17, 1998

Addressing a congregation in the International Secretariat of the MQM to offer Fateha on the brutal killings on 12 August, 1998, of ten MQM workers at North Nazimabad, Karachi, Altaf Hussain emphasised that the present alarming spree of murders of innocent Mohajir youths was fundamentally on account of the fact that the 1997 verdict of the Supreme Court holding the Bhutto Government guilty of extrajudicial killings of MQM workers has not been legally redressed by the present Government. Indeed, the inability of the Prime Minister to constitute immediately a legal commission to probe into such killings had encouraged the same culprits to continue with the same policy of annihilation and elimination of his people. This inaction of the Prime Minister was contrary to the Constitution in which Article 9 guarantees safety of life and also in direct contravention with the written agreement between the Muslim League and the MQM in which this issue was given the highest significance. He reminded the audience that the removal of the Prime Minister Bhutto by the then President in November, 1996, was principally based on the extrajudicial killings of hundreds of MQM workers. The Supreme Court, the highest judicial forum of the country, affirmatively upheld this ground in the Dissolution Order when Benazir challenged her removal from office. As the new Chief Executive of the country, it was the responsibility of Mr Nawaz Sharif to have immediately constituted such a commission as it was his duty under the Constitution and by virtue of his expressed agreement with the MQM. It is also noteworthy, Altaf Hussain said, that a subsidiary ground relating to corruption in the dismissal of Benazir Bhutto, which was also endorsed by the Supreme Court, has been vigorously pursued the world over; regretfully, however, the major reason for the historic judgement of the Apex Court regarding sanctity of life has essentially remained unattended! In addition, Article 190 of the Constitution expressly mandates that all State Authorities have to implement and act in aid of all pronouncements of the Supreme Court. Given the highest priority to the right of life as a fundamental norm of the Constitution and of civilised societies, was it not the duty of the Prime Minister to have immediately tried and punished those who had brutally misused their State positions to murder innocent people in cold blood as indicated in the Supreme Court judgement? The inability of the Prime Minister to do so in the last year and a half had encouraged such perpetrators of those heinous crimes to continue with same criminal intent the elimination of the workers of the MQM which had reached shocking proportions in the North Nazimabad tragedy when ten party workers were simultaneously killed at a spot. Accordingly, Altaf Hussain demanded that this continued injustice to the very existence of Mohajirs be immediately redressed if the Prime Minister did not want to be judged by history to have miserably failed to perform his fundamental duty to safeguard human life.