LAHORE: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri has come down hard on those responsible for the Model Town incident, saying they are trying to confuse the incident with the Sahiwal killings to conceal their crimes.

In a statement on Thursday, he said the Sahiwal incident was reprehensible and those responsible for it must face the music, however, it was beyond doubt that the Sharif brothers were planners of Model Town incident and they used police as a tool. He said Shahbaz Sharif had created a lot of hurdles in the impartial investigation into the Model Town incident as heirs of victims were not allowed to file first information reports, cases were registered against the witnesses under the Anti-Terrorism Act and they were intimidated; forensic survey of crime scene was never held and Shahbaz Sharif even concealed Justice Baqar Naqvi commission report.

Mr Qadri said before this report, on June 17, 2014, Shahbaz Sharif had bragged during a press conference that he would resign if Justice Baqar Naqvi commission had him responsible while the commission held him and his government fully responsible.

“An anti-terrorism court summoned IG Mushtaq Sukhera, DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar and other police officers in the Model Town case but former chief minister rewarded them with promotions and posting of their choice. They were not even transferred as punishment.”

Mr Qadri said Mushtaq Sukhera was appointed advisor and later federal ombudsman of tax while Tauqeer Shah was sent to Geneva as ambassador. He added that the founder of fake encounters, suppressor of political opponents and accused of 10 killings is now shedding tears in the National Assembly for victims of Sahiwal incident which was nothing but humiliation and ignominy of humanity.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2019