NA body piqued by inaction over 2009 Sri Lanka team attack

Directs Punjab Home Department to submit complete details in next meeting

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law and Justice has expressed serious concerns over the authorities’ inaction against those officers, who were on duty, and nominated in the judicial commission report during the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3, 2009.

The matter came under discussion during the 15th meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Riaz Fatyana, member of the National Assembly (MNA).

Initially, the committee unanimously confirmed the minutes of its previous meeting held on May 7, 2019.

Meanwhile, the committee was briefed by the Punjab Home Department about the report of the judicial commission regarding the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore.

Pakistan condemns terror attacks in Sri Lanka

The committee observed that it was a detailed report consisting 106 pages and discussing the conduct of each officer on duty on the day of the incident, but only the pages containing findings had been presented.

The committee deferred the said agenda with the direction to the representative of the home department to attend the next meeting after full preparation, and complete record showing that who was the Punjab inspector general of police at that time, and what was the action taken by him upon the said report.

The committee observed that the report from the Establishment Division secretary would also be obtained showing the complete details of the carrier and posting history of the officers nominated as responsible for the said incident, from the date of the said occurrence till date, along with the details of their place of postings during the said period.

The committee was also briefed about the incident of murder of judges in District Jail Sialkot. The committee was apprised that no judicial commission was constituted for the inquiry into the incident in which four judges were murdered while the then district and sessions judge Sialkot was injured.

The committee was dissatisfied with the briefing and deferred the agenda till its next meeting with direction to the Punjab home department to come in the next meeting along with detailed documents, including the FIR, its final report and postmortem reports of the victims.

The Ministry of Law and Justice was recommended to obtain a report from the Lahore High Court registrar as to why the judicial inquiry of the incident was not conducted along with a list of the judicial officers survived in the said incident.

The committee recommended obtaining the report from the Punjab home department containing a list showing details of the officers proceeded against by the department and penalised for this incident.

The committee was briefed about the matter of pending compensation in air crash of PIA.

The PIA representatives apprised the committee that the department had challenged the judgement of a single bench of the Sindh High Court.

The PIA also admitted that the deceased was a foreign passenger and not a domestic one.

The committee recommended both the complainant and the department to settle the issue within two weeks by way of arbitration.

Members, MNAs and movers Attaullah, Lal Chand, Muhammad Farooq Azam Malik, Kishwar Zehra, Malik Muhammad Ehsanullah Tiwana, Sher Ali Arbab, Shunila Ruth, Ch Mehmood Basir Virk, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Nafeesa Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar and Aliya Kamran attended the meeting. While law and justice secretary along with staff, CAA, PIA and Punjab Home Department representatives were in attendance.