LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday sought a reply from the Punjab government on a petition seeking an order to make public the inquiry held by a judicial tribunal into Model Town incident.

Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti held first hearing of the petition and issued notice to the government through home secretary for Aug 25.

A PTI leader, Zubair Niazi, filed the petition and contended that the government put the inquiry report in cold storage like many judicial inquiries held in the past.

He said the government was deliberately avoiding release of the report in order to protect those actually responsible for the killings of Pakistan Awami Tehreek supporters.

The petitioner said every citizen had a constitutional right to have access to the inquiry report. He asked the court to direct the government to release the tribunal’s report so that the actual culprits could be taken to task.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: Justice Aalia Neelum of the Lahore High Court upheld an objection of the Registrar’s Office to a petition seeking action against PTI chief Imran Khan for giving a call for civil disobedience.

Advocate Kashif Mahmood Sulemani filed the petition and asked the court to hear it on a day-to-day basis. However, the office raised an objection and said there was no such urgency in the case.

On petitioner’s request, the office fixed the petition before Justice Neelum as an “objection case”. The judge heard lawyer’s arguments and upheld the office’s decision.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014