QUETTA: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar has lamented targeted and deadly attacks on members of the Shia Hazara community in Quetta and said the court has no words to condemn the mass killings.

However, he said that court would issue orders to ensure that the beleaguered community was provided protection.

The CJP made these observations while heading a two-judge bench that took up the suo motu case at the Quetta registry of the apex court on Friday regarding targeted killings of Hazara people.

The court sought a detailed report from the authorities concerned on targeted killing of the Hazara people in 15 days and said it would set up a committee that would look into the matter.

Advocate Iftikhar Ali, who was representing the Hazara community, told the court that due to targeted killings, the community was not only facing human losses but also financial losses. He said Hazara people faced systemic discrimination as they were denied admission to educational institutions.

“The situation has forced a large number of the Hazara people to migrate to Australia,” he said.

Asks young doctors in another petition to first ensure their presence at hospitals and then raise demands

The lawyer told the court that security guards for 15 leaders of the community had been withdrawn.

However, DIG Abdul Raz­zaq Cheema den­ied withdrawal of security guards for the Hazara leaders.

Mr Ali said the Hazara people were being killed for the last 20 years but no one had been arrested in this regard. To this, Chief Justice Nisar asked Inspector General of Balochistan police Moazzam Jah Ansari if a report had been prepared on the issue. Mr Ansari replied in the affirmative and submitted a report which stated that during the last six years, 399 Hazara people had been killed in various incidents of terrorism, adding that the highest number of the slain people — 208 — came in 2013.

Nine members of the Hazara community had been killed in Balochistan during the last four months, the report said.

Retired Major Nadir Ali, a representative of the Hazara people, lamented that a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed to investigate the targeted killings had failed to produce any significant results.

On a petition filed by a Hazara woman about her “missing” husband, the chief justice directed IG Ansari and the Frontier Crops authorities to approach the Inter-Services Intelligence to seek assistance on the matter.

The CJP said, “I met Hazara community people recently. They were so afraid that they would not even lodge complaints or a petition in the Supreme Court. On the other hand, killers of the community people are holding public rallies.”

Qayyum Changezi, another representative of the Hazara community, claimed that the terrorists who had been convicted in terrorism cases had not been punished yet.

Hazara Democratic Party leader Abdul Haq Hazara said his community had been gripped by fear. “Our lives and property are not safe,” he said, “Militants shoot down people in broad daylight while Quetta has been turned into a no-go area for us.”

Young doctors

Chief Justice Nisar rebuked the protesting young doctors of Balochistan, asking them to first ensure their presence at their workplace and then make demands.

During the hearing of a suo motu case regarding the demands of the Young Doctors Association (YDA), Chief Secretary of Balochistan Aurangzeb Haq told the SC bench that the doctors were indulging in politics under the garb of protest for their demands.

The chief secretary said the junior doctors did not perform their duties at which the chief justice said that such doctors should be sacked.

YDA president Dr Yasar Khosti said problems of junior doctors working at government hospitals were not being solved. He said young doctors were paid Rs24,000 monthly stipend in Balochistan but they received Rs60,000 in other provinces.

The chief justice said stipend paid to the young doctors reflected the conditions prevailing in Balochistan.

Provincial Health Secretary Saleh Nasir, said all demands of the young doctors could not be accepted.

A representative of the paramedical staff association said the paramedics did not have a service structure and they were denied health professional and risk allowance.

The Pharmacists Association president said pharmacists were not being given timescale and other incentives.

Kharan killings

The SC bench also took up a suo motu case on the recent targeted killing of six labourers in Kharan.

Submitting a report about the incident, the provincial home secretary said the incident took place on May 4 when seven workers belonging to Okara district of Punjab were working on a tower of a mobile phone service company.

The chief justice regretted that no security had been provided to the workers.

The home secretary said the private company’s contractor had neither applied for a no-objection certificate nor asked the government to provide security to the workers.

The company’s lawyer said the company would provide financial assistance to the children and widows of the slain workers.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2018