LAHORE: A Lahore High Court (LHC) two-judge bench received a sealed report of a judicial inquiry conducted by a judicial magistrate into Sahiwal killings while it turned down a plea to constitute a judicial commission to hold the probe.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan, observed that no law authorised the high court to form a judicial commission.

Muhammad Jalil, brother of Khalil who was gunned down along with his wife and a teenage daughter in the Sahiwal incident, had sought constitution of a judicial commission.

To an argument of the petitioner’s counsel, the chief justice pointed out that the judicial commission on Model Town incident was formed by the provincial government. The chief justice asked the counsel to present before the bench any law empowering the court to form a judicial commission.

The federal and provincial law officers also opposed the plea for the constitution of the commission. After hearing the arguments, the bench dismissed the plea.

The bench had on Feb 14 ordered the judicial inquiry into the Sahiwal killings and the sessions judge had appointed civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate Shakeel Goraya to hold the inquiry into the incident within 30 days.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2019