LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Saturday issued notices to the Punjab government, advocate general and the prosecution department to determine whether a new joint investigation team (JIT) can be legally formed in the Model Town incident case when the previous one had already submitted its report.
A two-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, was hearing an appeal filed by a teenage girl Bisma Amjad, whose mother was killed in the Model Town incident. Justice Ijaz-ul Ahsan was the other member of the bench. Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri was also in the court for the hearing. “No doubt this matter was delayed which should not have happened” the country’s top judge remarked when Qadri expressed his sorrow over the delay. “We are here to address the grievances of people and tell us what the court could do for Bisma,” Justice Nisar told Qadri who took the rostrum to speak on Bisma’s case.
The two-member bench was hearing Bisma’s petition in the Supreme Court Lahore Registry, as she had sought formation of a new JIT and directions to the anti-terrorism court to hold trial proceedings twice in a week. Qadri said the-then JIT constituted in an FIR registered against them (Minhaj-ul-Quran workers) had given a dissenting note, recommending that the case FIR should be quashed. He said it was regrettable that the dissenting note was not made part of the record by the then government.
Raising question over the JIT’s conduct, he contended that around 4,000 family members of PAT workers were arrested by the police amid the “carnage”. He lamented that over 100 schools of Minhaj-ul-Quran were bulldozed and shops, houses were also demolished. The children started sleeping outside their demolished houses, the JIT used to arrest their workers whenever they tried to appear before it (JIT), Dr Qadri maintained. He said the JIT was constituted under the-then government’s influence. He said there were 66 people who got bullet injuries but they were not given the opportunity to appear before the JIT.
No FIR was registered on their complaint owing to which they had to move to Islamabad to stage a sit-in as a result of which an FIR was registered against the accused persons, including politicians. He implored that the rulers at that time got constituted the JIT of their own choice. Around 1,000 police officials took part in the incident, he added. Qadri said the report released by the earlier JIT — which had been formed by the previous Punjab government — could not be trusted as members of the former administration were suspects in the case. He claimed that his party's witnesses could not appear before the JIT due to government pressure and alleged that the JIT had recorded one-sided witness accounts and could not be called neutral. The PAT chief said they had been demanding an impartial inquiry from day one. He said a minister of the then government had seconded their stance of a fair inquiry but the next day he denied it, saying that the boss wasn’t ready for that.
Qadri said the police had registered an FIR against them, adding, “It is astonishing enough that the witnesses of that gory incident had been made the accused persons in that FIR. Then they moved an ATC and filed a private complaint nominating the PML-N leadership as well as the police high-ups. “The circumstances are different when you had filed the private complaint,” Justice Nisar remarked. “We would have to see from legal aspects whether the new JIT could be formed at this stage,” the top judge remarked. “We would have to address the issues, grievances of those children who lost their parents,” he further said. “Let me tell what do you need, point out the problems which are affecting the smooth trial,” the chief justice asked Qadri who said the matter had been delayed.
Justice Nisar said no doubt and it should not have been delayed and said he was ready to order if Qadri wanted a speedy trial. The chief justice asked him if it was legally possible to form a JIT when a previous one had already submitted a report.
The PAT chief said there was a precedent of a JIT being formed more than once and quoted some examples including the Pakpattan, Baldia Town fire and Zainab murder cases where, according to him, JITs had been formed one after another. He prayed the court that a fresh JIT should be formed to hold fair and free investigation of the Model Town massacre. The PAT chief also told the court that the prosecution lawyer had withdrawn himself from the case due to daily hearings, which were being held on the Supreme Court’s orders. He requested the bench to hold trial twice a week instead of hearing the case on daily basis. The plea was accepted. In 2014, at least 14 people were killed and 100 others injured in police action against the PAT workers in Lahore’s Model Town area during an ‘anti-encroachment operation’ on June 17.
