LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has filed a petition in the Lahore High Court for inclusion of provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the FIR on June 17 killings in Model Town in which 21 suspects have been nominated.

The petition filed by Advocate Ishtiaq Samuel on behalf of the PAT says that police did not register the FIR in accordance with the application of the aggrieved party.

The lawyer argued that insertion of Section 7 of the ATA in the FIR was critical because of the story narrated in the application by the complainant. He accused police of favouring the nominated suspects by not adding the ATA provisions and requested the court to order police to insert Section 7 in the FIR.

On Thursday, the Faisal Town police registered the FIR against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, five federal ministers and a number of senior police officials.

The case based on the version of Minhajul Quran’s director administration was registered on the order of a sessions court which was challenged but upheld by the Lahore High Court.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Punjab government said the FIR had been registered under the sections which had been mentioned in the application filed by Minhajul Quran, a sister organisation of the PAT.

He claimed that the application did not seek inclusion of any section pertaining to terrorism. Therefore, the FIR was registered under sections 302, 324, 109, 148, 149, 395, 506 and 427 of the Pakistan Penal Code as per allegations levelled by Minhajul Quran’s lawyer in the application.

The spokesman said Minhajul Quran’s lawyer Mansoor Afridi had admitted in a TV talk show that the case had been registered as per his request.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2014