Abduction of Iqbal Kazmi On 3 June 2007, the government announced that it would impose a ban on any televised live talk show that discusses the issue of the chief justice's suspension. It threatened to take punitive action against broadcasters that displayed an anti-state or anti-national stance and cast "aspersions on the integrity of the armed forces". Under Musharraf's decree, the government amended the PEMRA Ordinance to impose these new restrictions on private television channels on 4 June 2007. Opposition parties and lawyers campaigned against these amendments and observed a "black day" in solidarity with the broadcasters and journalists. Amongst the petitioners was the civil rights activist Syed Mohammad Iqbal Kazmi who had recently filed a petition in the Sindh High Court on 12 May violence. Kazmi was abducted by unidentified persons on 6 June 2007 after he had filed his petition against the PEMRA ordinance. He was later released by his abductors on the condition that he would leave Karachi along with his family. However upon his release, Kazmi revealed that the reason for his abduction was rather his petition on the 12 May violence. He told of his harrowing ordeal where he was quizzed about his association with Imran Khan's PTI and the reasons as to why he named MQM founder and chief Altaf Hussain in his petition. His petition had also included the names of several other major political and government figures as respondents alongside Hussain. The named respondents included Sindh chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim, federal interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah, adviser to Sindh CM on home affairs Waseem Akhtar, chief secretary Shakeel Durrani, home secretary Ghulam M. Muhtaram Naqvi, provincial police officer Niaz A. Siddiqui, CCPO Azhar A. Farooqui, and the SHOs of City Courts and Jamshed Quarters police stations. Formal inquisition Alongside Kazmi's petition, the Sindh High Court initiated its own suo moto proceedings issuing contempt of court notices to the federal interior secretary, Sindh chief secretary and home secretary, AIGP (acting PPO), Town Police Officer and other officials who were responsible for maintaining law and order on 12 May 2007. Subsequently, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also moved an identical contempt of court application. A seven-member bench was constituted to preside over the case. The bench included justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Anwar Zaheer Jamali, Mushir Alam, Azizullah M. Memon, Khilji Arif Hussain, Maqbool Baqar, and Ali Sain Dino Metlo, who were