*KARACHI: Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar has landed into hot waters over May 12carnage.*
*An Anti-terrorism Court (ATC) on Tuesday indicted Mayor Karachi WaseemAkhtar along with other accused in one of the cases pertaining to May 12,2007 violent clashes.*
Waseem Akhtar appeared before the ATC along with other suspects; he wasindicted by the court in a case of violence. A number of cases related toMay 12 incident have been pending in ATC.
Akhtar incumbent Mayor of Karachi, was holding the office of provincialadviser on home affairs in Sindh during that period. Akhtar has beenaffiliated with Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), an ally of the thengovernment supported by military ruler Pervez Musharraf- the party wasalleged of inciting bloody clashes on May 12, 2007 in Karachi.
The May 12, 2007 is also infamous as Black Saturday riots in the history ofKarachi, when the then suspended chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhryarrived at the Jinnah International Airport of Karachi.
Two rival rallies organized on that day; one by the lawyers bodies backedby the opposition political parties to welcome chief justice IftikharChaudhry, and the other by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), a coalitionpartner of the Musharraf-led government, against “politicization” ofjudicial reference against the chief justice.
Around 43 people died as a result of violent clashes between pro-governmentactivists and supporters of former chief justice.