LAHORE: The opposition parties have demanded registration of a murder case against Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for his alleged role in the killing of seven people, including two women, during police action against the supporters of Dr Tahirul Qadri in Model Town.

They also called it a “brutal and fascist” act which, they said, was unprecedented in the country under any democratic rule.

The opposition believes a judicial inquiry, like the one ordered by the chief minister, will be a ‘cover up’ unless Shahbaz Sharif resigns as chief executive of the province to face independent investigation.

All mainstream opposition parties like the PTI, PPP, PML-Q and MQM are unanimous that the government acted out of fear that Mr Qadri might send it packing on his return from Canada on June 23.

“Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif are responsible for this bloody action. Will the Shahbaz-government tell under whose order this barbaric act was committed? In fact it was intended to exact revenge on the supporters of Pak army and stopping Dr Tahirul Qadri from returning home,” PML-Q senior leader Pervaiz Elahi told a news conference here on Tuesday.

“This barbarism has heralded the departure of the rulers who ordered firing on innocent people, including the elderly, women and children,” he said.

Pervaiz Elahi said: “Shahbaz Sharif is the Narendra Modi of Punjab. What Shahbaz Sharif did today in Lahore was like what Narendra Modi had done in Indian Gujrat by shedding blood of the innocent Muslims.”

He said the Sharif brothers would have to account for this barbaric act. “The PML-Q, MQM or Sunni Ittehad Council could be the next target of the PML-N government because they too had taken out rallies to support the army,” he said.

He said as the army was engaged in operation in North Waziristan against terrorists and the whole nation was praying for its success, the rulers were hatching conspiracy to weaken the institution.

PML-Q president Chaudhry Shujaat Husain said after the Lahore incident Dr Qadri could have given a call to his supporters to take on the PML-N government, but he advised them to remain calm.

He said Dr Qadri was working with good intentions for ‘revolutionary reforms’ in the country and the PML-Q would support him.

PPP Secretary General Sardar Latif Khosa said a murder case should be registered against Shahbaz Sharif to bring him to justice. “Formation of a judicial commission is an attempt to cover up the tragic incident. Shahbaza Sharif is involved in it. This state terrorism could not have been unleashed without the approval of chief minister,” he told Dawn.

He said the Sharifs were pro-Taliban while Mr Qadri was anti-Taliban. “The PML-N government was already unnerved by the news of Dr Qadri’s return (from Canada). It was planning to institute a money-laundering case against Qadri, that showed the party was afraid of being sent home,” Mr Khosa said.

PPP’s Manzoor Wattoo recalled that Dr Qadri had last year staged a sit-in in front of the parliament but the PPP never thought of using force.

PTI vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said he had no words to comment on “this barbaric act by the Punjab police”. “The rulers have become pharaohs. Had the government gone senseless to the extent it opened fire on innocent people?” he asked.

He said the constitution of a judicial commission to probe the matter was a “drama”. The government needed consensus at a time when an operation was underway in North Waziristan but with this brutal action it showed that it had “some other plans”, he added.

MQM leaders Farooq Sattar said the Punjab police had crossed all limits of committing atrocities. “The Punjab police had wounded the heart of Pakistan,” he said, adding the provincial government could not be absolved of this heinous crime and those responsible for it should be brought to justice.

Jamaat-i-Islami head Sirajul Haq condemned the police for opening fire on innocent people.

“A democratic government is expected to abide by law but the brutal police torture on the PAT workers and firing resulting in eight deaths and injuries to dozens of people proved that the rulers had scant regard for democratic and legal norms,” he said.

JI deputy secretary general Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha said the state terrorism against innocent people was “sheer fascism.”

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2014