KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered customs officials to investigate the case of 19,000 containers reported missing from the Karachi port.

A three-member bench of the apex court comprising of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawad S. Khawaja and Justice Gulzar Ahmed was hearing the case over the implementation of the court’s verdict in the Karachi law and order case at the Karachi registry.

Issuing an interim order, the bench also directed Rangers and police personnel to report to court how many of the missing containers carried weapons and ammunition. The court further ordered law enforcement agencies to conduct door-to-door search for illegal weapons in the city.

The SC further ordered customs officials to investigate weapons brought legally into the city, after which Rangers and police should also carry out a similar investigation to determine for what purposes the weapons were brought into the metropolis.

During the hearing, the provincial government of Sindh submitted a detailed plan outlining the ongoing operation in Karachi.

Advocate General Sindh also requested the court to allow it to impose curfews in parts of the city where an operation would be carried out to recover illegal weapons; to which the court replied that such an authority was only with the government.

Furthermore, Attorney General Munir A Malik submitted a report by the federal government detailing the steps to prevent the smuggling of weapons and drugs.

Earlier in the day, SSP Investigation East Junaid Shaikh was suspended for not arriving at the court for hearing.

The case was subsequently adjourned until Nov 11. The next hearing will be held in Islamabad.