LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has demanded that the Model Town incident case be referred to a military court being set up under the 21st Amendment.

A statement quoted party chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri as saying that the (Islamabad) sit-in had been temporarily suspended and if the Model Town case was sent to a military court, the PAT would welcome it.

“The party will welcome if the Model Town killing case is sent to a military court as it is not possible to get justice from the Joint Investigation Team or any other institution that is working under the JIT or in collaboration with it as the JIT is summoning the victims instead of the accused,” it said.

It said the federal and provincial governments were forcing the party to come out on the streets as harassment of PAT leaders and workers was continuing unabated. It said that under pressure from the government the police included section 302 against the PAT chairman in a “false” FIR.

Dr Qadri’s spokesman Muhammad Noorullah warned the government against using anti-terrorism court against its political opponents as the tactic had already led to a loss of people’s faith in the ATCs because of which military courts had to be set up to try the terrorists.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2015

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