Model Town violence: Petition seeking SC commission referred to CJ

Petition needs to be reviewed by a larger bench

LAHORE: Lahore High Court’s Justice Ameer Bhatti on Thursday referred a petition seeking the constitution of a commission composed of Supreme Court judges to probe the June 17 Model Town violence to the chief justice.

After taking the petition up, Justice Bhatti had observed that the legal question that had been raised by the petitioner needed to be reviewed by a larger bench. He forwarded the file to the chief justice regarding the need for the constitution of a larger bench to review the matter.

Advocate Mohammad Irfan, the petitioner, had said the report of LHC tribunal’s inquiry into the incident was vague and inconclusive.

He said the inquiry had failed to do justice to the issues. Irfan said the inquiry should be reviewed and if it had failed to identify the culprits its report should be set aside. He sought directions from the government regarding the constitution of a commission composed of Supreme Court judges in accordance with the wishes of the Minhajul Quran.

Irfan said the aggrieved party had confidence in the apex court. He said the LHC tribunal’s inquiry had been lopsided as no representative of the aggrieved had appeared before it. Irfan had also sought amendments to the law to enhance the jurisdiction, power and authority of such a tribunal.  He said amendments were necessary to ensure that tribunal’s recommendations were implemented and not disregarded. Irfan said action along these lines was needed to ensure that failure to act on the recommendations could lead to legal proceedings. He asked the court to provide him with a copy of the tribunal’s findings in accordance with Article 19-A of the Constitution.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2014.