ISLAMABAD: The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the criminal case registered against the prime minister and a host of government leaders and officials by the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) following the bloody violence in the Red Zone on August 30, has been disbanded.

Official sources said the local administration took the decision after PAT’s objections that some members of the JIT were among the accused it named in its FIR filed with police in the aftermath of the violence.

It was the second JIT disbanded by the administration in recent times.

The previous one was probing the former president, retired General Pervez Musharraf, for the 2007 Lal Masjid military operation.

It was dissolved on the objection of the mosque clerics that two of its members were retired military officers and reconstituted to the satisfaction of the clerics.

The decision was taken after PAT raised objections against some JIT members

Four persons were killed and several injured in the August 30 clash between PAT protesters trying to march on the Prime Minister House and police and other security forces guarding the government buildings in the Red Zone.

Inspector General of Police of Islamabad constituted the JIT on September 21 on the instructions of the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad, five days after the police registered the criminal case against the government leaders and officials on the orders of a local court.

Meanwhile, a third FIR, filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) about the same incident, has been registered against the prime minister and others.

PAT’s objections to the JIT members notwithstanding, the sources believed the main reason behind the dissolution of the JIT was a report that the government recently submitted to the Supreme Court on the political turmoil in the city and its fallout.

It alleged that PAT’s recourse to courts for the registration of its FIR was designed to avoid the investigation into the incident and described the FIR as a counterblast and mischievous attempt aimed at achieving political gains by maligning holders of constitutional offices.

Published in Dawn, October 1st , 2014