Lahore clashes: Will accept only JIT with ISI, IB, MI reps, says Qadri

Qadri said he did not have confidence in the one-man tribunal formed by the Punjab government.

LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehrik chief Dr Tahirul Qadri has said they would accept an inquiry by a joint investigation team which consisted of representatives from Inter-Services Intelligence, Military Intelligence, and Intelligence Bureau, and a judicial commission comprising three impartial judges of the Supreme Court (SC).

Addressing a press conference through a video link from Canada on Friday, Qadri said that a joint investigation and a three-member investigation tribunal comprising judges of the SC was formed to investigate the attack on TV anchor Hamid Mir. He questioned why it was not possible in regard to the Model Town incident in which more than a dozen people were gunned down and 80 others injured.

He said he did not have confidence in the one-man tribunal formed by the Punjab government, which he deemed as responsible for the incident. He alleged that the police were implicit in the killing of his activists, and questioned how they would be able to carry out an impartial investigation.

Qadri said this was his last press conference from Canada, adding that he would leave for Pakistan after it ended. He said he arrive on June 23 at Islamabad airport.

The PAT leader also said that he did not give his party workers permission to protest violently, and insisted that they protested in a democratic manner.

He added that his party had been patient even after enduring the tumultuous clash on Tuesday between PAT workers and the police, which left as eight party workers, including two women, dead and 85 others injured.

Qadri said such an incident had not occurred in the history of Pakistan.

He had addressed the media and a participants of a joint meeting of representatives of different parties including Chaudhry Ijaz of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, Jahangir Badar and Mian Manzoor Wattoo of Pakistan Peoples Party, Chaudhry Zaheer of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Rasheed Godail of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen, and Sahibada Hasan Raza of Sunni Ittehad Council at the secretariat of Pakistan Awami Tehrik (PAT).

The representatives of these parties held the meeting to show solidarity with the PAT activists and condemn the police operation.

Member and representative of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) Hassan Moiuddin lashed out at Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Friday, going as far as referring to him as a killer for the Lahore incident,  while speaking to the media. 

In a joint statement of the SIC, the Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen and other political parties, an SIC representative said Shahbaz was a cruel leader, as well as a killer.

The representatives of these parties after having a joint session issued a joint communiqué making various demands to the government. They made demands for a joint investigation team, and a three-member SC bench for investigation into the incident, as well as a release of all arrested activists of PAT.

They also demanded that the missing PAT workers that were arrested by the police and transferred to an undisclosed location be produced.

The participants further demanded that the government ensure the registration of an FIR on application filed by PAT workers against Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, his different ministers and police officers and officials.

They expressed their solidarity with Dr Tahirul Qadri and condemned the Punjab government for carrying out this deadly operation.

Separately, Jamat-e-Islami deputy chief Hafiz Muhammad Idrees, condemned the incident and said that the Sharif brothers had not learnt anything from their past experiences.

In a statement issued, Idrees said that the Sharif brothers must make amends for their past lapses and abandon the path of tyranny and oppression, lest they fell prey to divine accountability once again.