An all parties’ conference (APC), organised under the aegis of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Tuesday, demanded a probe by the superior judiciary into the incidents of violence, killings and arson in the city on April 9.

Jamaat-e-Islami Naib Amir, Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, chaired the conference at Idara Noor-e-Haq that also demanded financial compensation for human and material losses suffered by the lawyers and other peaceful quarters of citizens of the metropolis on April 9.

The APC, attended by local leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), Awami National Party (ANP), National Peoples Party (NPP), Tehreek-e-Insaf (TI), Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), and Tehreek-e-Islami, also demanded the immediate release of renowned nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan from his house arrest in Islamabad.

Participants of the meeting urged the newly-elected government to re-investigate the incidents of violence and terrorism in the city on May 12, 2004, and May 12, 2007, as well as the bomb blasts at Nishtar Park and at Karsaz (on Oct 18, 2007).

Participants of the conference expressed serious concern over the reported statement of President Pervez Musharraf who termed the violence of April 9 in Karachi as the reaction to the manhandling of former federal minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi in Lahore.

The conference expressed sorrow and grief over the incidents of arson and rioting in the city on April 9 as the saboteurs used a highly inflammable chemical to burn the lawyers and their clients alive, and to incinerate public and private property.

Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, in his presidential remarks at the conference, demanded the immediate reinstatement of the over 60 judges of the superior courts who had been deposed as

adjudicators after President Musharraf proclaimed emergency in the country on November 3, 2007.

He also demanded that the newly constituted parliament should move a motion to impeach President Musharraf in case he declined to step down from the presidency.

He hoped that the Pakistan Peoples’ Party-led government in the country, enjoying public mandate and peoples’ confidence, would devise policies, strategies, and initiate programmes and packages to substantially mitigate the socio-economic sufferings of the people of Pakistan mainly due to skyrocketing prices of essential commodities.