LHC to Address Appeals from the Government of Punjab and Families of Victims in the Model Town Case
On June 17, 2014, approximately 14 people were killed and 100 others injured when local police attacked the residential area of Model Town during an ‘anti-encroachment’ operation led by Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Dr Tahirul Qadri.
However, the Government of Punjab appealed to the Lahore High Court (LHC) to disregard the single-member bench’s decision to make public the inquiry report with regards to the Model Town incident.
Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, of the LHC, after hearing a petition filed by the families of the affectees of the incident, ordered the Punjab Secretary to make public the inquiry report compiled by Justice Ali Baqar Nafaji.
In an intra-court appeal filed by Advocate General Punjab Shakeelur Rehman Khan, the Government of Punjab stated that they were not given a chance to present reasons for why it wanted to keep the inquiry report undisclosed to the public. The appeal stated that the judgment was made in haste and should be discarded.
However, in a separate appeal, the families of the victims demanded that Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, the Chief Secretary of the province and the Home Secretary be charged for not making the report public on the orders of the court.
