LHC reserves verdict on Model Town report

Full bench told that making the report public can affect ‘social order’

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) full bench reserved its verdict on Friday on an Intra-Court Appeal (ICA) filed by the Punjab government challenging a single bench order to make the Model Town inquiry report public.

Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh headed the full bench which also comprised Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmad.



The bench reserved the verdict after hearing the arguments of Punjab government counsel Khawaja Harris in rebuttal of contentions raised by the counsel of heirs of the Model Town incident victims.

Contradicting the respondents' arguments, including provision of information under Article 19 (A), Khawaja Haris submitted that the right to information was subject to reasonable restrictions. He submitted it was feared that public and social order would be disturbed if the report was made public, whereas the government was duty-bound to maintain it.

He said if the implementation of fundamental rights was affected, than other conventions could be suspended.

The counsel said two FIRs were registered in connection with Model Town incident and these were pending before an anti-terrorism court. “If the Model Town report was made public, it would definitely affect the right of fair trial of the parties,” he added.



He submitted that the government ordered the Model Town inquiry for its use and it was its discretion whether to make the findings public or not.

The advocate continued that the single bench ordered the release of the Model Town report despite the fact that six identical petitions were pending before a full bench. The single bench of Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi had, on Sept 21, ordered the Punjab home secretary to make the Model Town report public while allowing a petition filed by heirs of Model Town incident victims.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2017.