ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has termed the report of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the Model Town incident “shocking” and said that it was the “height of injustice.”

In a message posted on his verified Twitter account on Saturday, the PTI chairman said that the report, which had absolved Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and then provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah from charges of ordering police to open fire on Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) activists, would send police the message that “they can do it again with impunity.”

Read: Model Town JIT gives clean chit to Shahbaz, Sanaullah

All five members of the JIT, in their report on last year’s incident, had unanimously declared Shahbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah “innocent” and dismissed all allegations against them, which were mentioned in the FIR lodged by Minhajul Quran as “baseless and without any evidence.”

PTI gets interim set-up

The report says that police officials had opened fire on their own on the basis of rumours regarding the kidnapping of their colleagues by PAT activists. Twelve PAT activists were killed and at least 24 injured on June 17 last year, a few days before the arrival of PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri from Canada.

The JIT had been constituted by the government in November last year, as a result of an understanding with Dr Qadri at the peak of the sit-in at D-Chowk in Islamabad.

Also read: JIT formed to probe Model Town incident

The JIT comprised representatives from the law-enforcement agen­cies, the Inter-Services Intell­igence and Military Intelligence.

PTI interim set-up

In another development, Mr Khan dissolved all the party organisations and announced an interim set-up to run the party affairs until the next intra-party elections.

Addressing a news conference at his Bani Gala residence on Saturday, Mr Khan said the decision was being taken in the light of the recommendations of the intra-party election tribunal headed by retired Justice Wajihuddin.

Also read: Imran tells PTI tribunal to stand down

Mr Khan announced the names of party organisers in each province who, according to him, would appoint temporary office-bearers. The office-bearers at the centre, he said, would be announced in a week’s time.

Former governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has been appointed as the party organiser in Punjab whereas MNA Dr Arif Alvi has been given the same responsibility in Sindh. Similarly, Yousuf Ayub and Humayun Jogezai have been nominated as PTI organisers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, respectively.

Mr Khan admitted the delay in the implementation of the recommendations of the intra-party election tribunal headed by Justice Wajihuddin. He said he was not expecting that the tribunal would declare all the elections as null and void on the basis of irregularities in the intra-party elections.

The PTI chairman said that he could not do so due to the recently-held local government elections in the cantonments and the forthcoming local bodies polls in KP.

Mr Khan made it clear that the office-bearers in the interim set-up would be appointed on temporary basis and a new caretaker set-up would be announced after finalisation of the election schedule by the party’s election commission headed by Tasnim Noorani. He said despite his requests, Mr Noorani had not provided any timeframe for holding the new intra-party elections.

Since those holding offices in the caretaker set-up would not be eligible to contest the party elections, therefore, he said, the interim set-up would have to be replaced by a caretaker set-up before the elections.

Responding to a question, Mr Khan expressed his satisfaction over the progress so far made by the judicial commission probing the charges of rigging in the last general elections. He said at the party would have no problems if the timeframe of the judicial commission was extended. He once again expressed the hope that 2015 would be the election year.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2015

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