LHC orders to make Model Town inquiry report public

LAHORE: A three-member bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered on Tuesday the Punjab government to release the Model Town inquiry report within 30 days. 

The order came on the appeal of the Punjab government against the LHC's earlier directives to disclose the report on the incident.

The three-member full bench, under Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh, had reserved the decision on the government's appeal on November 24.

The Punjab government had filed an intra-court appeal against the September 21 decision of a single-bench ordering the release of the inquiry report, authored by LHC Justice Baqar Najafi.

In its Tuesday's order, the full-bench directed for an impartial and transparent trial into the Model Town incident. 

The bench also ordered the government to share forthwith the report with the victims' families. 

Following the incident, workers of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) began amassing at GPO Chowk near the LHC, chanting favours in their support. 

At least 14 people were killed and 100 others injured in police action against PAT workers during an 'anti-encroachment operation' on June 17, 2014.

Punjab govt ordered to make public judicial report on Model Town incident

More than a dozen PAT workers were killed in police shelling in Lahore's Model Town locality in June 2014

On September 21, Justice Mazahar Ali Naqvi ordered the Punjab home secretary to make public the report on the Model Town killings and provide a copy to the families of those killed and injured in the 2014 incident.

The government, in its appeal against the decision, challenged the jurisdiction of the single bench to give its decision on the report, on the grounds that as many as eight identical petitions on the same matter were already pending before a full bench.

 

In the appeal, the government said it was neither asked by the single bench to file any reply nor was put on notice on the matter, adding that it was also not given any opportunity to explain its position on the case.

This is the end of Shehbaz Sharif: opposition leader

Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, talking to the media after today's order, paid tribute to the judiciary for its decision on the Model Town incident.

“We demand the immediate resignation of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah. After Nawaz, now Shehbaz will go home. I am seeing the end of his politics,” claimed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader.  

'Punjab govt will appeal decision in Supreme Court' 

Meanwhile, PML-N leader Zaeem Qadri, talking to Geo News, said the government has the right to appeal to the decision in the Supreme Court. 

He termed PTI's prediction of Shehbaz's end a "joke". 

PAT leader Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, in a press conference, said they have a right to immediately be provided with copies of the report as the single bench had directed for its 'immediate' release.