Model Town mayhem: APC faults Shahbaz, wants him to resign

Says police and provincial administration should be suspended for acts of state-sponsored terrorism and brutality.

LAHORE:

Representatives at the multiparty meeting called by Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) are pressing for the resignation of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and suspension of several provincial administration officials after holding them responsible for the deaths of 14 PAT workers on June 17.

“An impartial and transparent investigation is not possible as long as the Punjab chief minister continues to stay in power,” a joint declaration issued at the end of the all parties conference (APC) on Sunday said.

“Therefore, the CM and all those ministers involved in the incident should tender their resignations and hand themselves over to the law,” said the declaration which was signed by representatives of all groupings.

If the CM chooses not to resign, the APC signatories said, the president, as constitutional head of the state, should play his role to force him [Shahbaz] to step down from his post.



They said all responsible ministers, the home secretary, the inspector general of police and other police officials – DIG operations, CCPO, SSP, DCO, SP Model Town, DSPs, and SHOs of relevant police stations – should be suspended immediately and apprehended on charges of state-sponsored terrorism and mass killings.

The APC, called to discuss “state-sponsored terrorism and brutality in the Model Town incident”, was attended by representatives of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), APML, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Awami Muslim League (AML), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), Saraikistan Jamhori Party, Jamiat Ahle Hadiths, Balochistan National Party (BNP), and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC). PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri, who read out a five-point joint communiqué at the end of the conference, condemned the June 17 incident as an act of “terrorism, savagery, violence and barbarism”.

The declaration said perpetration of violence and savagery on unarmed citizens was an act which was tantamount to breaching Islamic, democratic, constitutional, legal and international values.

“The federal government,  provincial authorities, police and administration are warned that no action of this kind can be tolerated at all and those responsible for it have no right to stay in power any longer,” it added.

At the same time, the APC rejected the FIRs registered against the Model Town victims and PAT protesters in the country. It demanded that all these ‘baseless cases’ be withdrawn immediately, adding that an FIR should be registered on the basis of an application lodged by Minhajul Quran International with the Faisal Town police station.

The multiparty meeting also recommended that a three-member judicial commission “consisting of impartial Supreme Court judges” should be set up. “The commission should be empowered to summon the prime minister, nominated federal ministers, and Punjab’s chief minister,” it said.

Similarly, an inquiry committee consisting of top officers of investigative agencies should be established to probe the Model Town tragedy.

PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said all those found involved in the operation should be suspended, adding that otherwise no one would remain safe in this political culture. “If we do not raise our voice against this act of state terrorism, we will be targeted one by one,” he said.

PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi also held Punjab CM Shahbaz responsible for the incident and demanded his resignation. He said the inquiry tribunal had lost its importance as the affected party had not reposed confidence in it.

Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed said the June 17 clashes were pre-planned. “What can we expect from a tribunal led by an ad hoc judge of the Lahore High Court?” he asked.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2014.