FAISALABAD: Instead of constituting the Joint Investigation Team which is mandatory to probe into terrorism charges, the Punjab government on Sunday formed another ‘fact-finding’ committee to investigate what led to the killing of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf worker Haq Nawaz in Faisalabad on Dec 8 last.

Earlier, the government had formed a three-member ‘fact-finding’ committee headed by environment secretary with Toba Tek Singh district police officer and Faisalabad additional commissioner as its members.

Now Jaranwala SP Arif Shehbaz Wazir will head the new committee that will start working on Monday (today) and submit it findings in three days.

Sources said the new committee would grill the policemen to ascertain what caused the failure of law and order on Dec 8. The first committee remained in the district for a couple of days and recorded the statements of various police officers, District Coordination Officer (DCO) Noorul Amen Mengal and others. The committee also obtained pictures and footages of the crime scene.

However, PTI had rejected the committee and did not join its proceedings.

The sources said the district police had succeeded in detecting the shooter who allegedly killed Haq Nawaz, whose mysterious disappearance forced the government to announce Rs5 million cash prize for informer. His brother has been taken into custody.

The man had been identified as Ilyas of Garh, Tandlianwala.

The sources said regular investigation into the matter would start only after the formation of JIT which was mandatory for probing into cases registered with different police stations under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

According to Samnabad station house officer (SHO), two high-profile suspects --- Abid Sher Ali and MPA Tahir Jameel, also could not be made part of the case without formation of the JIT.

Published in Dawn December 15th , 2014