page_title: 12 May Karachi riots
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 12 May Karachi riots / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Chaklala, Pakistan (Oct. 15, 2005) - Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf speaks during a press conference at the Pakistan Air Force base in Chaklala Pakistan. The United States government is participating in a multinational humanitarian assistance and support effort lead by the Pakistani Government to bring aid to victims of the devastating earthquake that struck the region Oct. 8, 2005. U.S. Navy Photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Timothy Smith (RELEASED)
context_page_description: The 12 May Karachi riots, also known as Black Saturday riots, were a series of violent clashes between rival political activists in Karachi. The unrest began as the recently suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry arrived at the Jinnah International Airport on 12 May 2007. Gunfights and clashes erupted across the provincial capital as Pakistan Peoples Party, Awami National Party, and Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party activists, who supported the judge, and the pro-government Muttahida Qaumi Movement activists took to the streets against each other. Government machinery was used to block all major roads. Police was accomplice and a silent spectator to the violence. News media was attacked at Guru mandir when MQM activists began firing at AAJ TV headquarters which was shown on live television.
  Chaudhry's supporters had announced a public rally to welcome the judge while at the same time, the MQM also announced a demonstration of their own to protest against the politicisation of the issue of judge's suspension.
context_section_description: In the first few months of 2007, several conflicts had already raged between chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the Pakistani government, particularly with regard to the Pakistan Steel Mills corruption case where the chief justice ruled against the sale of the state-owned steel mills at a "throw-away price". Issues pertaining to the privatisation of the state-owned steel mills upset Shaukat Aziz, who served as the prime minister under the Musharraf administration.
  What irked president Pervez Musharraf however was the controversial Missing Persons case that found Pakistan's intelligence agencies (including the FIA and the ISI) to be complicit in the forced disappearances of up to 400 people (including terror suspects and human rights activists) without due process since 2001. Under Chaudhry's leadership, the courts had increasingly started "exercising independence from the government" when it ordered the security agencies to produce the missing people in court.
  When the Musharraf administration asked the judge to quit, Chaudhry refused to go. On 9 March 2007, Musharraf had no other choice but to suspend Chaudhry from his post for alleged and unspecified charges of misconduct and misuse of authority. The sacking of the head of the judiciary sparked bloody protests throughout Pakistan and "edged the country towards a constitutional crisis". The civil unrest grew with regards to the validity of the allegations as well as doubts as to whether Musharraf had the power to suspend the chief justice. It was on these grounds that Chaudhry waged a legal battle in the Supreme Court seeking his reinstatement. He called his suspension a "thinly veiled assault on the independence of judiciary in Pakistan".
caption: Iftikhar Chaudhry was widely expected to try and insist Musharraf (above) stand down as army chief.[7] The judge had also taken on several other cases that upset the government for which he was suspended from his post as chief justice.
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