Commission report should further be investigated and reveal the names of those who ordered opening fire on PAT workers
LAHORE: The Punjab government, at last, publicly launched the Najafi Commission Report on the Model Town incident of 2014. The report, although without naming any Punjab government officials in particular, mainly points finger at the police officials deployed in the area for the killing of 14 Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers. The report further states that the proceedings of the meeting of the provincial government, a day before the protest of PAT workers was deliberately focused on stopping the PAT workers by means of force.
A similar situation was observed a few days ago when the authorities launched an operation against the Faizabad sit-in protestors.
What often goes missing in such situations are the clear deadlines for the police or personnel of other law-enforcement agencies on when to use force or firearms against the protestors or the crowd. Mostly, the police force follows the orders of government officials, which are often given on sudden whims.
Hence, it is important that the law, to some extent, must include the context of circumstances in which the police must be allowed the use of force on instructions from senior police officials only and not the government officers and ministers.
The commission report should further be investigated and reveal the names of the officials who ordered opening fire on the PAT workers.
Hamna Zubairi
Published in The Express Tribune, December 7th, 2017.
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