Model Town incident: Arguments on maintainability of plea against new JIT sought

LAHORE: A larger bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday sought arguments on the maintainability of petitions against the formation of a new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) by the Punjab government to re-investigate the 2014 Model Town incident.

Earlier, Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar, counsel for one of the petitioners, resumed his arguments against the “wrong intention” of the government in issuing the JIT notification and its flaws in the procedure.

He restated that the government had betrayed the court by making contradictory statements about the establishment of JIT. He urged the bench to initiate criminal proceedings against Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and other government officials for cheating the court.

Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, who presided over the bench, asked the lawyer what his argument would be if the government issued a new notification for the new investigation team.

Tarar said there would be legal hurdles to the way of the government to allow re-investigation. He said that the Supreme Court had ruled in 1986 that re-investigation was a means of spoiling the investigation. A seven-member bench of the Supreme Court dismissed the petition for re-investigation in 2018 as the trial in a private complaint filed by the complainant was in progress.

Justice Malik Shehzad Ahmad Khan, a member of the bench, asked the lawyer to first convince the court on the point of maintainability. He observed that all questions regarding shortcomings in the government’s jurisdiction and procedures were to be taken up later.

The bench adjourned further hearing till October 8 at the request of the lawyer. Earlier, counsel for the petitioners filed a written reply to two civil miscellaneous petitions filed by the government.

Other members of the bench are Justice Alia Neelam, Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi, Justice Sardar Ahmed Naeem, Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh.