LAHORE - A Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar here yesterday issued notice to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Opposition Leader in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif and 137 others nominated in a case lodged by Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) to seek constitution of new JIT on the June 2014 Model Town carnage.
Bisma Amjad, an aggrieved woman of the incident, filed an application to the chief justice requesting to constitute a new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe into the killing of 14 innocent workers of the PAT/Idara Minhajul Quran.
Bisma Amjad, the daughter of a Model Town victim, had pleaded for formation of a new JIT, saying that the first JIT had not conducted investigations on merit and acquitted the said politicians.
The other parliamentarians and bureaucrats nominated as accused by the PAT include Punjab opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz, former law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, former railways minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq, former defence minister Khwaja Asif, former information minister Pervez Rashid, former state minister Abid Sher Ali, former interior minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan, then personal secretary to chief minister Syed Tauqir Shah, former home minister Azam Suleman and then Lahore Commissioner Rashid Mahmood Langrial.
The accused police officers include former IGP Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera, former DIG Operations Lahore Rana Abdul Jabbar and then SP Security Salman Ali Khan.
A two-judge bench will further hear the application on November 19. The court would decide a legal point whether or not a new JIT could be formed at this stage of the case.
On September 26 last, a three-judge bench of the Lahore High Court with a majority decision by two to one, had dismissed two criminal revision appeals challenging a trial court’s decision on a private complaint by the PAT to the extent of non-summoning of 12 accused including PML-N’s leaders and bureaucrats.
At least 14 persons were killed and over 100 injured during an ‘anti-encroachment’ operation outside the Model Town residence of PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on June 17, 2014. Jawad Hamid of PAT had filed the private complaint before the trial court.
