Govt yet to hand over report to Model Town tragedy victims, LHC told

Letter to LHC registrar says home secretary failed to comply with orders

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has been told, through a letter, that the home secretary has failed to comply with its orders to hand over the report of the judicial inquiry into the Model Town incident to its victims, as well as the attested affidavits of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah.

The letter was written to the LHC registrar by senior advocate Azhar Siddique on behalf of Qaisar Iqbal – one of the victims of the Model Town tragedy. The registrar was told that the victim had written to the home secretary for making the Model Town inquiry report public along with the affidavits from Sharif and Sanaullah, in compliance with the court orders.



The home secretary, however, did not comply, arguing that the judicial commission had not handed him the affidavits or the inquiry report of the incident. Then on Wednesday, Siddique wrote to the LHC registrar informing him of the home secretary’s response.

On September 21, LHC’s single bench of Justice Sayyed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi had ordered the Punjab Home Department to issue the Model Town inquiry report to those affected by the incident. The judge had maintained that it was the constitutional right of those affected by the incident to be informed of who the wrongdoers were.

The Punjab government had then challenged the verdict, asking the court to set aside the order on the grounds that the government’s version was not heard.



However, on December 5, a full bench of the LHC, headed by Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh, rejected the Punjab government’s appeal ordering it to declassify the report prepared by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi within 30 days.

It is pertinent to mention that at least 14 people were killed and more than 80 others injured in a clash between the police and PAT workers in June 2014, over the issue of barriers placed outside the Minhajul Quran Secretariat in Model Town, Lahore.