- Dr Tahirul Qadri to challenged JIT’s report on Model Town incident, mobilise workers like last year
- Disgruntled PAT supporters suspect PAT chairman will abandon them again and return to Canada
Cleric cum politician Dr Tahirul Qadri will return to Pakistan on Ramzan 19 and will immediately challenge the joint investigation team (JIT)’s report on the Model Town incident in the court of law, Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) President Dr Raheeq Abbasi told Pakistan Today on Thursday.
Abbasi said that a team of eminent lawyers has been formed to challenge the JIT’s report on behalf of PAT. “The names of the lawyers will be announced by Dr Qadri once he returns to Pakistan,” he added.
On May 20, 2015, a JIT probing clashes between the Punjab Police and PAT workers on June 17, 2014, gave the prime minister, chief minister, law minister and the then DIG Operations a clean chit. It fixed blame on a police superintendent and nine other policemen.
The JIT was headed by Quetta CCPO Abdul Razzaq Cheema and its members were Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Bilal from Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), SSP Shahzad Akbar, Muhammad Ali from Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Deputy Superintendent of Police Khalid Abubakar.
“Principle decision has been made that on Dr Qadri’s return, PAT will write to European Union (EU) and United Nations Human Rights Council about the June 17, 2014 Model Town incident in which a clash between the police and Minhajul Quran workers left 14 people dead and over 90 injured,” said Abbasi, adding that a detailed CD of the incident has also been prepared which will be sent to the international bodies of human rights.
Speaking on the issue, PAT spokesperson Noorullah Siddiqi added that arrangements have been finalised to mark the first anniversary of June 17 martyrs and a huge conference will be arranged in Lahore in which PAT chairman will speak to the workers and his followers via video link. “A monument in the memory of the martyrs will also be inaugurated at Model Town,” said Siddiqi.
Talking to Pakistan Today, PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that judicial commission’s report of Justice Baqar Najafi stated that the prime minister and the Punjab chief minister were responsible for the deaths of 14 people but Sharif brothers are “hiding that report from the media and the public at large”.
“We rejected the JIT which served as a personal servant to Sharif brothers and boycotted its hearings on a principle stand that we wanted a JIT which was acceptable to the families of the martyrs,” said Gandapur. “The blood of martyrs will not go in vain. CM Shahbaz and his team will have to face the music in the court of law now,” he added.
According to sources privy to the development, the party will mobilise its workers on the same footings such as last year’s to carry out protest demonstrations and rallies across the country.
Several PAT workers and supporters told this scribe that they were “unhappy and angry on the U-turn taken by PAT Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri on principle stands in the past and leaving his people alone”.
“We suspect that this time too he (Qadri) will leave us alone and return to Canada like he did previously even after delivering a speech that he has returned to Pakistan leaving behind everything and will not leave the country and his people without bringing a revolution,” said one of his supporters, Bashir Hussain Qadri.
Sources in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said that they were not upset on Qadri’s return because he will be coming to Pakistan on summer vacations like previous years and will go back after delivering some fiery speeches.