'Porous borders' to be blamed for law and order problems: Pak CJ

Karachi: Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry has blamed the country’s “porous” international borders for a grim law and order situation in the troubled Balochistan province. “Our neighbouring countries have been working to fence their side of border, but we have left our porous borders open for the smuggling of weapons, which is main cause of the grim law and order situation in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi,” Chaudhry said yesterday. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, comprising of the Chief Justice, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Sheikh Azmat Saeed has resumed hearing on a constitutional petition filed by President of Balochistan High Court’s Bar Association Zahoor Ahmed Shahwani on the lawlessness and security situation in the province. [caption id=“attachment_1114673” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The Pakistan-Afghanistan border. AFP[/caption] The counsel for the Balochistan government, Barrister Shahid Hamid told the court about the decisions and steps taken by the government to control the law and order situation in the province. Rejecting the government’s progress report, Chaudhry said that the court was not satisfied with the steps taken so far to restore peace in the province. He also said that the issue of persons missing in the restive province is of national importance, with the authorities having no clue about their whereabouts. He said that it is duty of the government to provide protection to its citizens under Article 9 of the Constitution. The apex court directed the Counsel to ask the Chief Executive Officer of a private TV channel which aired footage of an attack on the Quaid-e-Azam Residency in Ziarat to appear before the court on September 18. PTI