LAHORE: A Lahore High Court larger bench on Wednesday directed the counsel for petitioners to file written replies to two applications of the Punjab government in defence of the new JIT to probe the Model Town incident.

Headed by Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, the seven-member bench was hearing the petitions challenging the constitution of the JIT formed by the PTI-led provincial government.

Khurram Rafiq and other police officials facing trial in a private complaint of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek filed the petitions in 2019. A full bench had on March 22, 2019, suspended the notification of the JIT.

Resuming his arguments on Wednesday, Azam Nazir Tarar, the counsel for petitioners, reiterated that the government played a fraud with the court by changing its stances. He said there were no documents on the record when the advocate general had given an undertaking before the Supreme Court on Dec 12, 2019, to form the JIT. He said the government even failed to furnish any documents regarding formation of the JIT when asked by the LHC on Jan 20, 2020.

However, he said, the government surprisingly came up with a new response before the larger bench in September saying an oral approval had been sought from the cabinet before approving the constitution of the JIT ex post facto (retroactively).

Advocate Tarar argued that the matter was very sensitive as it entailed death penalty and such fraudulent conduct of the government could not be tolerated. He urged the bench to initiate contempt proceedings against the officers concerned of the government.

The CJ asked the counsel that it would be appropriate to file his written reply to the government’s applications.

Advocate Azhar Siddique, on behalf of the victims, raised objection to the arguments of Tarar against the government’s applications. However, the CJ observed that the court was yet to issue a notice on the applications.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2021