LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Dr Tahirul Qadri on Tuesday has given a deadline of December 31 to Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan to step down from their positions in connection with Justice Baqar Najafi’s report on the Model Town killings.
Addressing a press conference, Qadri said: “They [Shehbaz and Sanaullah] should immediately resign and present themselves to authorities or I will announce the next strategy soon.”
Rejecting calls to step down, Sanaullah had said that only the party chief, Nawaz Sharif, could ask him to quit.
The PAT chief said it’s only a matter of time when people “will drag them [PML-N leaders] on roads”, adding that his party did not agree with the biased bench formed to investigate the incident.
“They will not get away this easily after killing 14 people,” he said, asking his followers to prepare for revenge.
Qadri demanded the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to investigate and ascertain the finer points of the Najafi report. According to the report, police tried to cover up the facts regarding who gave orders to open fire on protesters.
At least 14 people died and 85 others were injured in a clash between police and PAT workers over the issue of barriers erected outside the Minhajul Quran Secretariat in Lahore in June 2014.
Backing Qadri’s demand earlier this month, former president Asif Ali Zardari had agreed to start a movement against the incumbent government in Punjab if the chief minister did not step down.
