LAHORE: Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday referred to the chief justice a petition seeking release of report of judicial tribunal into Model Town incident with a request to form a larger bench on the matter.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s youth wing president Zubair Niazi filed the petition and contended that the Punjab government had put the inquiry report in cold storage like many judicial inquiries held in the past.

He said Justice Ali Baqar Najafi (tribunal) handed over its report to the government but it was deliberately avoiding release of the report in order to protect the people responsible for the killing of supporters of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek/Minhajul Quran.

The petitioner said every citizen had constitutional right to have an 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.

DETENTION: A division bench directed the Punjab home secretary to decide on representations of PTI and PAT against alleged detention of their workers in the province.

The bench disposed of 11 identical petitions against the detention of the workers.

The petitioners said detention of the workers was unconstitutional and contempt of a restraining order passed by a full bench.

An assistant advocate general told the bench that 2,540 detainees had been released from different jails of the province during the last three days.

The government detained the political workers fearing unrest in the province, he said.

The law officer objected to the maintainability of the petitions and said the petitioners should have approached the appropriate platforms before moving the court.

The bench headed by Justice James Joseph disposed of the petitions with direction to the home secretary to decide the matter within four days and submit a compliance report.

BAIL PLEA DISMISSED: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday dismissed bail petition of a factory owner involved in electricity theft worth Rs30.4 million. The theft suspect, Mian Ijaz, approached the court for pre-arrest bail and denied the charges levelled by the Lesco.

However, counsel for Lesco opposed the plea and said Supreme Court had already denied bail to the petitioner. He said Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) found the suspect guilty in investigation.

He asked the court to reject the bail application. After hearing both sides, Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi dismissed the petition.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2014