LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri on Thursday slammed the Punjab government for its decision to file an appeal against the Lahore High Court’s order of releasing Model Town inquiry report.

At a press conference here, Dr Qadri questioned the withholding of the inquiry report prepared by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi for the last three years if Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and other government functionaries were not responsible for the killings of innocent PAT workers.

He regretted that not even a single person had been convicted so far of the killings. He also reminded the chief minister of his pledge to resign within no time if his involvement was proved in the incident.

He asked the provincial home secretary to make the inquiry report public as ordered by the Lahore High Court. Otherwise, he said, a contempt of court petition would be filed against the government.

“We will oppose the government’s appeal,” Qadri maintained, saying the court verdict would continue to haunt the perpetrators of the Model Town incident.

He demanded the interior ministry should place the names of all those nominated in the FIR of the incident registered on the complaint of PAT. He criticised former prime minister and ministers of the PML-N for launching a vilification campaign against the judiciary following Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification in Panama Papers case.

He also accused Mr Sharif of inciting people against the state institutions.

The PAT chief said his party workers neither took law into their hands, nor used derogatory language against the judiciary and peacefully waited for the justice to be done.

He claimed the doors to the power corridors had been closed for all times to come for the Sharif family and its successors.

He also claimed that the Sharifs had been trying to stop finance minister Ishaq Dar from returning to the country as there was a possibility that he would become an “approver” in cases against the family.

Dr Qadri alleged like his elder brother and his family members, Shahbaz too was going to leave for London to avoid court cases.

Talking to reporters at the Lahore High Court, PAT secretary general Khurram Nawaz Gandapur hailed the decision and hoped that all the perpetrators of the Model Town incident would be soon behind the bars.

He demanded the Punjab chief minister to release the inquiry report and immediately resign. He said PAT would vehemently contest the appeal to be filed by the government against the decision.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2017