ISLAMABAD: Even though the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has called off its sit-in on Constitution Avenue, a case filed on their complaint over the death of four PAT workers on August 30 still haunts the ruling Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N).

On Saturday, additional district and sessions judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan directed the Secretariat Police to submit a report explaining why they had not made any arrests or initiated proceedings on the FIR registered against PML-N leaders, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and others.

District and Sessions Judge Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan, on September 15, had ordered police to register the FIR against the PML-N leaders, in connection with the violence that took place on Constitution Avenue that claimed the lives of four PAT workers and left several more injured.

Last week, PAT counsel Mohammad Waqas Malik filed a petition before the judge, saying that following the registration of the FIR, he had asked police officials to record the statements of those injured in the August 30 melee, but they have not proceeded on the matter so far.

PAT counsel says investigators delaying action under pressure from ‘powerful personalities’

The counsel claimed that the investigation was not moving forward due to the non-availability of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), maintaining that it was the legitimate right of the complainant and the aggrieved to record their statements and produce supporting evidence for their claims.

The investigating officer (IO) is obligated to record the version of the complainant, the injured persons – as per the record of government hospitals, including Pims, Polyclinic and the CDA Hospital, where they were registered.

Advocate Malik also alleged that the IO had not visited the scene of the alleged crime and had yet to finish a site map, examination report and other pre-requisites for an investigation. He maintained that the IO was delaying the investigation at the behest of “influential and powerful personalities” and requested the court to direct police officials to arrest the accused and proceed against them in accordance with the law.

After the August violence, both PAT and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) filed separate petitions seeking the registration of FIRs against PML-N leaders for using force against unarmed protesters.

Additional district and sessions judge Shahrukh Arjumand, hearing PTI’s petition on September 27, had ordered the Secretariat station house officer to register a case against members of the ruling PML-N.

But the Islamabad High Court, on September 16, suspended PTI’s FIR. However, the case registered on PAT’s complaint is still intact.

Talking to Dawn, the PAT counsel said that unless their FIR was not suspended, police were duty-bound to arrest the accused and initiate legal proceedings against them.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014