Lahore’s anti-terrorism court (ATC) has adjourned the case hearing of the Model Town incident until September 7. ATC judge Arshad Javed heard the 10 years old case related to the Model Town incident. Pakistan Awaami Tehreek’s (PAT) lawyer Makhdoom Majeed Hussain couldn’t appear before the court and no proceedings were held. Consequently, the court has summoned JIT member SP Saif Al-Murtaza, DSP Muhammad Azam and Asad Mazzaffar as witnesses and adjourned the case hearing. In the last hearing, senior counsel PAT’s Makhdoom Majeed Shah was summoned for cross-examination in the case. It is pertinent to note that a total of 98 witnesses' statements have been recorded in the Model Town tragedy case. A total of 124 accused have been nominated in the Model Town tragedy prosecution case.
Model Town Tragedy Incident At least 10 people were killed and around 100 injured during an anti-encroachment operation outside the Model Town residence of PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on June 17, 2014. Idara Minhaj Ul Quran, a subsidiary of PAT, had filed the private complaint before the ATC against the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, sitting PM Shehbaz Sharif and almost all federal and provincial cabinets of PML-N besides officials of police and district administration accusing them of killing its workers. The previous government in Punjab led by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had constituted a new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to reinvestigate the incident. However, several accused police officials challenged the JIT before the LHC and got it stayed in 2019. Former Punjab IG Mushtaq Sukhaira, DIG operations Rana Abdul Jabbat and five accused have already been acquitted in the case.
Credit: Independent News Pakistan