LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri has appealed to the army chief to help him get justice for the victims of the Model Town police firing incident and rejected a new joint investigation team (JIT) formed by the government under the Quetta police chief.

Addressing a press conference through video link from Canada on Friday, he said three demands of the PAT had been conveyed to Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif at a meeting during the party’s sit-in in Islamabad — registration of the FIR of the case, formation of a JIT and resignation of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

He claimed that the army chief had termed the demands fair and urged the general to provide justice, saying that only one demand, registration of the first information report, had been accepted by the government.

Referring to warrants for his arrest issued by an Islamabad court in the PTV attack case, he said “the courts which were supposed to provide us justice are issuing our arrest warrants and declaring us fugitives”.

He cautioned that an operation similar to the one under way in North Waziristan would be required if justice was not provided because the victims would take the law into their own hands.

Rejecting the JIT headed by Quetta police chief Abdur Razzaq Cheema, formed by the Punjab government on Tuesday, he said the officer had served most of his time in Punjab while the PAT had demanded that no officer from the province should be in the team to ensure fairness in the investigation.

Dr Qadri claimed that Mr Cheema was a family friend of the Sharifs and the PAT had rejected his name during talks with the government.

He sarcastically said that it would be better if Shahbaz Sharif himself became the chief of the JIT with Hamza Shahbaz and other close relatives as its members.

The PAT chief said his party had demanded inclusion of representatives of the ISI, MI and IB in a probe team headed by a police officer from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

At least 14 PAT workers were killed in a police raid on the Model Town secretariat of the party on June 17.

Dr Qadri termed the issuance of his warrants a cowardly act and dared the government to arrest him.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2014