LHC seeks Model Town inquiry report on Nov 14

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) full bench asked on Thursday the Punjab government counsel to present the Model Town inquiry report on the next hearing for its in-camera perusal while hearing an appeal challenging the release of the report.

As the proceedings commenced, Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh, who heads the three-member bench, asked the provincial government's counsel, Khawaja Harris, whether he had brought the inquiry report to which he responded in the affirmative. 

However, Justice Sheikh remarked that “the bench cannot hold perusal of the report due to shortage of time."

The bench then directed the lawyer to come with the same report on November 14, the next date of hearing, so the bench could examine it. 

Later, lawyers of the victims of Model Town incident and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) began their arguments and opposed the government’s appeal. 

They said the public had the right to know details of the report and find out who was responsible for the violence. 

Requested formation of Model Town commission, says Shehbaz

Shehbaz reached London on Saturday and is expected to attend a PML-N advisory session

The victims’ lawyers, including Azhar Siddique and Khwaja Tariq Rahim, said that 14 people lost their lives and 95 others got injured in the incident. 

They requested the bench to set aside the government’s appeal. 

As a previous hearing, as Harris concluded his arguments, he stated that the report could affect the trial proceedings on different FIRs lodged in the Model Town incident. 

On September 21, a single-member bench of the LHC ordered the Punjab government to make public the judicial inquiry report into the Model Town killings.

LHC hears govt's appeal against Model Town inquiry report order

Punjab govt's counsel, Khawaja Harris, said the matter could not have been fixed before a single bench when a full bench was already hearing a similar case

The order was read out by Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi while hearing a petition by the families of those injured in the 2014 clashes with police in Lahore to make the inquiry report public. 

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

The government had appealed the decision, the hearing of which is presently under way by the larger LHC bench. 

Originally published in The News