ISLAMABAD, March 4: The gruesome murder of scores of people in a massive bomb blast in Karachi forced the Supreme Court on Monday to observe that the federal and provincial governments had failed to protect the life and property of citizens.

Taking a suo motu notice on the incident, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry summoned a comprehensive reply from Advocate General of Sindh Abdul Fateh Malik and fixed the matter on Wednesday before its Karachi registry where a bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim is hearing a number of cases.

“An appropriate order after hearing all concerned is required to be passed,” the chief justice observed while deciding an office note initiated by SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain.

This is the second such suo motu notice. On Feb 18 the court had taken notice of the unabated killings of the Hazara Shia community in Quetta.

Citing newspaper reports, the office note carried gory details of the carnage which claimed the lives of 45 people and left 150 others injured in the Shia-dominated neighbourhood of Abbas Town on Sunday. Several women and children were among the dead.

After the bombing, the note said, members of the Shia community took to the streets against law-enforcement agencies and the government and demanded the arrest of the killers. Mourners gathered in different areas of the city and set on fire a bus on M.A. Jinnah Road. The situation in many areas is tense.

It was reported, the note said, that law-enforcement personnel and government officials had not reached the venue of the blast in time for rescue and relief work because they were busy in providing security/protocol to high-ups at a private function.

It said that after the two consecutive bomb blasts in Quetta this equally shocking carnage should serve as an eye-opener. “The incidents in Quetta led to the sacking of the provincial government, with calls also made for replacement of civil administration by the armed forces, to provide security to inhabitants,” the note recalled. It said that being a major disaster causing 45 deaths and 150 wounded with enormous loss/destruction of property, it was a serious violation of fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 9, 14, 23 and 24 of the Constitution.