An additional district and sessions judge on Monday disposed of a petition that sought registration of cases against officials of the Punjab government and police for their alleged role in the deaths of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) activists on July 17. The court directed the petitioner to approach a “proper forum” for his petition.
Petitioner Nauman Attique had claimed that the Punjab police attacked PAT members on orders of the Punjab chief minister and former law minister Rana Sanaullah.
The petitioner claimed that CCPO Shafique Ahmed Gujjar, Operations DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar, Cantonment SP Malik Awais, Model Town SP Tariq Aziz were also responsible for the deaths.
The petitioner sought registration of cases against the Punjab CM, Rana Sanaullah, the CCPO, the Operations DIG and others 600 unidentified policemen.
On Monday, Faisal Town Police submitted a response on the petition in court. Police said the petitioner was not an eyewitness and was not present at the scene of the Model Town incident.
They also said that a case had already been registered on the June 17 incident with the Faisal Town police.
“The contents of the application moved by the petitioner are identical to the FIR already registered in the case. Hence there is no reason to register a second FIR into the incident,” the police officers said.
The court said a tribunal, led by a Lahore High Court judge, had already been constituted on the request of the Punjab government to investigate the incident. “The applicant could avail this opportunity by appearing before the tribunal to record his version,” the court said.
The court said the matter was disposed of because a judicial inquiry into the issue was being conducted by the LHC.
“The petitioner is at liberty to approach the proper forum for redress of his grievances,” the verdict read.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2014.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ