Model Town case: Session court's decision challenged in LHC
Session court's decision regarding Model Town case has been challenged in Lahore High Court.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – Session court’s decision pertaining to the Model Town tragedy case against Prime Minister, Chief Minister Punjab, Pervez Rasheed, Khwaja Saad Rafique, Khwaja Asif and 12 others has been challenged in Lahore High Court on Friday, Dunya News reported.
Information Minister Pervez Rasheed had filed a petition against the decision of session court in his personal capacity. The Director of Minhajul Quran, Justice of Peace and the SHO of Faisal Town Police Station have been made party in the petition. It has been stated in the petition that the session court registered the case without reviewing the legal provisions and therefore, took a one-sided decision.
Chief Justice of Lahore High Court Manzoor Ahmed Malik referred the petition to Justice Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, however, he excused from hearing the case for personal reasons. Therefore, the petition has been forwarded to Justice Mahmood Maqbool Bajwa but the case could not go ahead because the court ran out of time to hear the case.
Earlier, the session court of Lahore hearing Model Town tragedy case ordered to book Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and others for the casualties of Minhajul Quran workers that took place on June 17 in Model Town Lahore.
The court ordered to file charges against the key accused including the named police officers.
Director Minhajul Quran International (MQI) Jawad Hamid had taken the plea before Additional Session Judge Lahore that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, Railways Minister Saad Rafique, Former Law Minister Punjab Rana Sanaullah, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Information Minister Pervez Rasheed, Principal Secretary to CM Punjab Tauqeer Shah, IG Police Punjab, Former CCPO Lahore Shafeeq Gujjar and SSP Rana Abdul Jabbar were among the 21 accused people who allegedly ordered police to murder 12 people in Model Town.
The MQI petition maintained that instead of launching the FIR on MQI’s behalf, police registered the FIR by itself, which is unconstitutional. The petition said that Police did not take the right legal course and therefore, all these people were also named among the accused by PAT.
Investigative Officer of Faisal Town Police Station told the court that the FIR of the case had already been registered and the investigations were underway. He also said that another FIR of the incident could not be registered.
After listening to the arguments by both sides, court ordered to register the FIR against all the people named in the PAT’s petition.
