KARACHI: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry observed on Wednesday that “different demands” were being made in view of the poor security situation in Karachi because the federal and provincial authorities had failed to implement the Supreme Court’s judgment in the city’s law and order case in letter and spirit.

He came down heavily on the Sindh chief secretary and provincial chiefs of police and Rangers, saying that instead of showing improvement the law and order situation had in fact worsened since the apex court’s judgment in the case. Law-enforcement agencies failed to protect the life and property of citizens, the chief justice added.

A five-judge larger bench, comprising the chief justice and Justice Jawwad Khawaja, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Ather Saeed and Justice Azmat Saeed, had taken up a case relating to implementation of its judgment.

The court expressed extreme annoyance and dismay over the killing of over 100 people over the past 10 days and asked Chief Secretary Ijaz Chaudhry, Sindh IG Shahid Nadeem Baloch and Rangers Director General Maj-Gen Rizwan Akhtar to explain what was obstructing them to curb extortion and target killings in Karachi.

At the outset of the hearing, the chief justice asked Advocate General Khalid Javed what steps had been taken to cope with the two issues.

The bench took notice of the absence of DG Rangers and directed the official concerned to call him to the court. “Rangers seem to have no interest in maintaining law and order,” a member of the bench remarked.

The DG Rangers later appeared before the court.

The chief justice observed that the law and order situation in the city could not be considered satisfactory because 10 to 15 were dying every day.

The court regretted that the situation had not improved ever after a passage of two years since its judgment in the Karachi case.

The chief justice asked the chief secretary if he had written any letter to the federal government regarding the situation in Karachi. The court directed him to place on record his correspondence with the provincial and federal governments on the issue.

The court came down hard on Deputy Attorney General Aashiq Raza when he submitted an old report on the law and order situation in the city. It asked Attorney General Muneer A. Malik to inform it about the stance of the federal government for providing assistance to the provincial government in normalising the situation.

The court observed that it was the responsibility of police to protect the life and property of citizens, but their performance was not satisfactory despite the fact that they had the support of Rangers, Frontier Constabulary and intelligence agencies.

The CJP asked the chief secretary to approach the federal authorities if the IG was incapable of handling the situation effectively.

The bench directed the prosecutor general to place on record data containing convictions and sentences awarded to the accused. The court will take up the case on Thursday.