LAHORE: A Lahore High Court full bench seized with multiple appeals about Model Town incident on Monday summoned former inspector general of Punjab police Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera.

The bench headed by Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan also directed Punjab Prosecutor General Ehtesham Qadir Shah to present Justice Ali Baqar Najafi’s inquiry report on the incident in sealed form.

Earlier, the bench heard arguments of the counsel for the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and directed him to submit verified record, which the party had claimed was enough for the trial court to summon former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and several members of the federal and provincial cabinets in a private complaint about the Model Town incident.

The counsel sought time to submit the record and requested the bench to defer the hearing till April 25. He said the appellant had not been provided with complete report of the inquiry conducted by Justice Najafi.

The prosecutor general told the bench the PAT had already filed a petition in the court for the provision of documents and videos annexed with the judicial inquiry report.

The bench pointed out that the Supreme Court had directed the high court to decide these appeals within two weeks. However, it accepted the request of the PAT counsel and adjourned hearing till April 25.

Meanwhile, PAT counsel Rai Bashir completed cross-examination of two defence witnesses (police personnel) during hearing of its private complaint before an anti-terrorism court.

The ATC Judge, Ijaz Hassan Awan, accepted an application filed by former DIG operations Rana Abdul Jabbar and allowed him one-time exemption from personal appearance.

The trial court is holding day-to-day hearing in the case on the direction of Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar.

missing activist: The Lahore High Court on Monday directed a federal law officer to submit a report on behalf of the Ministry of Defence regarding whereabouts of missing rights activist Raza Mahmood Khan.

Earlier, Deputy Attorney General Javed Kasuri filed a report on behalf of the interior ministry that revealed that the [allegedly] missing activist was not in the custody of any of the agencies working within its ambit.

At this, petitioner’s counsel Asad Jamal pointed out that the court in its previous order had sought a report from the defence ministry along with reports from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Intelligence (MI). He said the order had not been complied with so far.

Justice Raja Shahid Mahmood Abbasi directed the law officer to submit the report in compliance with the previous order by May 7.

Meanwhile, a police officer told the court that Jail Road and Upper Mall were the two last locations of the activist after the alleged incident as per his mobile phone record. He sought more time to submit complete record of the missing activist’s mobile phone calls.

In this case, Intelligence Bureau (IB) had already submitted a report expressing ignorance about the whereabouts of the missing activist.

Hamid Nasir Mahmood had filed the habeas corpus petition contending that his brother Raza Khan was allegedly abducted by unidentified persons on Dec 2, 2017 from his Model Colony residence.

He said Naseerabad police registered an abduction case against unknown suspects but failed to recover his brother or make any arrest. He asked the court to order the police to recover his brother and produce him before the court.

Raza Khan was a convener of Aghaz-i-Dosti, an initiative between the youth of Pakistan and India.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2018