ISLAMABAD: The main opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has called for implementation of the report of the one-man judicial tribunal under Justice Ali Baqir Najafi on the Model Town incident through initiation of action against those found responsible in the report.

Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday, Punjab PPP president Qamar Zaman Kaira and the party’s central information secretary Chaudhry Manzoor said that making the report public was an important development but getting the report implemented would be the real task.

The PPP leaders said cases must be registered against those who had been found responsible for the killing of innocent people in Model Town.

The PML-N’s provincial government of Punjab under Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was delivered a serious blow on Tuesday when contents of the report were made public on the orders of the Lahore High Court.

Recalling the gruesome events of June 17, 2014, the tribunal observed that Punjab police had done exactly what “it went for”. The police, it said, had “actively” participated in the “massacre”, and keeping in view the “facts and circumstances, the reader of the report can easily fix the responsibility of the unfortunate incident”.

The tribunal, which investigated the killings of 14 Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers in Model Town, accused the Punjab government of concealing facts and hindering the investigation, while its officials tried to cover up for each other, preventing the tribunal from arriving at a definitive conclusion.

Mr Kaira accused the Punjab government of giving “sectarian colour” to the report and said the PPP condemned such attempts. He warned the government against taking actions that could create instability in the country.

If anyone had reservations over the findings of the report, they must go to the court, Mr Kaira said. If Punjab’s chief minister and law minister believed that they were innocent, they should not have any fear, he added.

Chaudhry Manzoor said it was surprising that the whole world was watching the police action in Model Town for three hours, but the provincial chief executive claimed that he was totally in the dark when the incident took place.

The PPP leaders also accused the PML-N government of making all-out efforts to make the PPP’s public meeting at Islamabad’s Parade Ground unsuccessful. They alleged that the government had not prepared any traffic plan for the event whereas no proper arrangements had been made to provide security to the participants of the public meeting, which was part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the party’s founding day.

Mr Kaira alleged that the processions coming from different parts of the country were stopped at Rawat and G.T. Road. He warned that if the government continued to adopt the same policy, the PPP would also have no option but to stage a sit-in.

Earlier talking to reporters, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah termed the PPP public meeting a big success and said a large number of party workers from Sialkot, Jhelum, Lalamusa, Kashmir and Attock could not reach the venue due to traffic jams and road blockades.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2017