Verdict reserved on Model Town probe report

LAHORE: A full bench of the Lahore High Court on Friday reserved its verdict on an appeal of the Punjab government challenging the order of a single bench about publication of Justice Najafi’s inquiry report on the Model Town killing incident.
Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh was leading the bench while Justice Shehbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin were its other members.
In his rebuttal arguments, the Punjab government’s lawyer, Khawaja Haris, argued that release of the inquiry report might cause law and order situation, which might lead to sectarian violence.
The bench observed that free and fair trial was the fundamental right of every citizen guaranteed by the Constitution, asking that how the fair trial is possible without issuance of the inquiry report. Answering to court’s query, Haris said Article 4 of the Constitution explained free and fair trial in a transparent manner but law and order should not be put on stake in the name of fair trial.
He pointed out that it is the prerogative of the government to keep the report secret or make it public as the government gets such reports done for its own sake. He argued that right of access to the information under Article 19-A of the Constitution was not absolute as it had to be exercised under some restrictions. The victims’ lawyers and the lawyers of Pakistan Awami Tehreek had already completed their arguments.
On September 21, a single bench comprising Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi ordered the Punjab Home department to issue the Model Town inquiry report to the affectees of the incident. The judge had held that it was a judicial proceeding and the aggrieved constitutionally had the right to have this report to know who exactly the wrongdoers were.
Fourteen people had died and 85 others got injured when a clash erupted between police and PAT workers over the issue of barriers put outside the Minhajul Quran Secretariat in June 2014.