LAHORE: A sessions judge ordered Lahore police on Saturday to register a murder case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, several other PML-N leaders and some police officials over the June 17 Model Town incident in which at least 11 supporters of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) were killed and scores wounded.

The judge gave the order on a petition filed by an office-bearer of the Minhajul Quran secretariat at a time when the PAT protest was under way in Islamabad. The petitioner, Jawad Hamid, complained that police were not ready to register a murder case of the PAT workers on his application against 21 PML-N leaders and police officials.

The order issued by Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Ajmal Khan said the SHO of the Faisal Town Police Station had not “discharged his legal obligations as he should have registered the FIR on the application of petitioner”.

However, police had not registered the case till late in the night and a spokesman told Dawn that they had not received the court order so far.

The petitioner’s counsel Mansoorur Rehman Afridi told this reporter that they would take the order to the Faisal Town police on his client’s return from Islamabad where he had gone to participate in the protest.

Punjab Advocate General Hanif Khatana said the provincial government planned to challenge the order before the Lahore High Court.

A judicial commission comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi of the LHC, set up to conduct an inquiry into the incident and pin responsibility for it, has already completed its work and handed the report to the Punjab government. The government has not made the findings public.

Apart from the prime minister and chief minister, others named in the application include former provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan, former principal secretary to the chief minister Dr Tauqir Shah, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Minister of State Abid Sher Ali, PML-N MNA Hamza Shahbaz, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Information Minister Pervez Rasheed, former DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar and former city police chief Chaudhry Shafiq Gujjar.

In his order, the judge observed that the case (No.510/14) registered on the complaint of a police official did not mention “whether any person had died during the occurrence and this fact by itself exposes the worth of this FIR”.

He rejected the government’s argument that there was no lawful justification for the registration of a second FIR, citing a judgment passed by the Supreme Court (Wajid Ali Khan Durrani vs Sindh Government, 2001).

The judge said the first FIR had not recorded the petitioner’s version and he had levelled serious allegations against the suspects named in his application.

“The application is accepted and respondent (Faisal Town SHO) is directed to register the FIR on the application of the petitioner and then to proceed in accordance with law in the investigation,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2014