Model Town anniversary: Qadri to announce new line of action

Urges army chief to provide justice to victims.

LAHORE: The populist cleric and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Dr Tahirul Qadri has announced to present his party’s new line of action in their upcoming protest sit-in, to be organised on Friday to commemorate the June 17 Model Town incident.

“I will make a special announcement at the sit-in,” said Qadri, after his arrival from London on Wednesday. “The protest demonstration will all be peaceful as the purpose is to seek justice for the martyrs of the Model Town incident,” he added.

On June 17 2014, 14 PAT workers were killed and dozens sustained injuries during clashes with police after they tried to remove barriers outside Qadri’s residence in Model Town area of Punjab’s capital.

After the incident, the PAT along with Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staged a marathon sit-in in Islamabad and also besieged parliament building and Constitution Avenue for months on end in a bid to dislodge the government.

The PAT chief called upon the army chief General Raheel Sharif to ‘put his foot down’ and provide justice to victims of the Model Town incident through military courts.

“It is our request that the army chief puts his foot down and provide us justice and the case be tried by a military court. If this does not happen then the army chief will be answerable to Almighty Allah on the Day of Judgment,” he said.

He said the FIR of the gruesome episode was also registered after intervention of the army chief. “For the past two years, we have run from pillar to post in search of justice but all our efforts have failed as the rulers have been influencing officials at every step of the process,” he said.

Qadri said after the incident the Punjab government formed two joint investigation teams (JITs) and one judicial commission for investigating the incident, while one review committee was also formed.

“But we have not been provided any final report of any of these bodies even though we approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) to get a copy of these reports,” he added.

Dr Tahirul Qadri recalled that on the evening of June 17, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced that if the judicial commission pointed a finger at him then he would resign.

“Interestingly, the judicial commission held the CM responsible for the whole incident but to no avail,” he said, adding that ‘the Sharif brothers and their cronies’ were responsible for the Model Town tragedy

June 17 sit-in

Meanwhile, the PAT spokesperson Noorullah Siddiqui told The Express Tribune that the party will ensure that all major political parties – including PTI, PML-Q and PPP – participate in the brief sit-in on Friday.

“Convoys of PAT workers will reach Faisal Chowk, The Mall from all over the country before Iftar on Friday. Isha prayer and Taraveh would be offered there and then Dr Tahirul Qadri will address the workers. After Sehri, the workers would peacefully disperse,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2016.