PPP delegation to meet Tahirul Qadri today: Khursheed Shah

LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari will hold a meeting with Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri today in Lahore, senior PPP leader Khursheed Shah said.

The party delegation is meeting with the PAT chief on the latter's invitation to Zardari, Shah said in a media talk in Islamabad.

The opposition leader said there is nothing new about the meeting and the two parties have been in contact previously too.

"We stood against [former military dictator] Musharraf together in 2002," he said. 

He, however, added that PPP has always stayed away from street politics and politics of anarchy.

Sources added that PPP leaders Qamar Zaman Kaira, Dr Qayyum Soomro and Shah will also attend the meeting.

Zardari contacted the PAT chief and discussed the Justice Baqir Najfi commission on the 2014 Model Town incident, sources said. The two also agreed to bring those responsible for the incident to justice.

Model Town incident

The Punjab government, at the behest of the Lahore High Court, made the report for the Model Town incident public on December 5. The report was drafted by Justice Baqir Najfi and termed the 2014 tragedy in Lahore's Model Town as the "most unfortunate incident" in the country's history.

At least 14 people were killed and 100 others injured in police action against PAT workers during an 'anti-encroachment operation' on June 17, 2014.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah dismissed the report as defective during a press conference held on Tuesday.

Qadri, however, in a press conference on Wednesday termed the provincial government claims that the report does not blame any government official as false propaganda.

Earlier today, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, the “political cousin” of PAT, said that the party “will join Tahirul Qadri if he takes to streets to protest”. He also said that Sanaullah and Punjab Chief Minister should face a terrorism case and should be in jail for the incident.