CM orders judicial inquiry

Shahbaz Sharif offers to step down if involved in any way in the Model Town tragedy.

LAHORE:

The Punjab chief minister stepped forward to soothe frayed tempers in an effort to undo the damage done by earlier defiant press statements of his party colleagues. He ordered a judicial inquiry and offered to step down if found responsible for the bloodshed outside the Minhajul Quran International Secretariat.

“I’ve requested the [Lahore] High Court [chief justice] to form a judicial commission, probe the matter on a daily basis and bring the facts before the nation,” Shahbaz Sharif told a news conference at Model Town. He added that the ‘strictest action’ would be taken against those found responsible by the commission.

“We all are grieved by the highly tragic incident,” he said, adding that he was deeply shocked over the loss of precious lives in the incident. He offered condolences to the families of victims and sympathised with Dr Tahirul Qadri, the chief of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and founder of Tehreek Minhajul Quran.

The chief minister said he could understand that the tempers were running high following the tragic deaths, but he appealed to the people to remain calm and peaceful. He reassured that he didn’t believe in the politics of personal vendetta, use of force or victimisation of political opponents. “My six years in power stand witness to this.”

As a believer in the rule of law, Shahbaz said he had always taken action against crooks, rapists, killers and dishonest officials. “I didn’t spare even my close relatives when it came to upholding the rule of law,” he added. “No one should have any doubts that those responsible for the Model Town tragedy will not be taken to task.”

Asked about the crackdown on PAT workers, the chief minister said although it was the administration’s responsibility to pull down the barricades set up outside the Central Secretariat of Idara Minhajul Quran, he believed he was accountable before the ‘court of the people’ and before Allah Almighty for the death of innocent people. Even if the barriers were considered illegal by the administration, there was no justification for the ‘cruelty and barbarism’ committed in Model Town, he added.

“If someone wants to lodge a case against me, he can do so because eight innocent lives have been lost,” he said indirectly referring to a statement of the PAT chief who said on microblogging website Twitter that “this attack on the peaceful workers had put a seal of approval on my prior FIR.”

The chief minister said that unlike the past rulers he didn’t believe in politics of ‘opposition for the sake of opposition’. He added that he never used violence to achieve political ends. The Punjab government also announced Rs3 million for the heirs of each victim and ordered free medical treatment for those injured in the incident.


Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2014.