Daily Times

LAHORE: Several family members of the 2014 Model Town incident’s victims have moved a petition in the Lahore High Court seeking release of a judicial inquiry report conducted by Justice Ali Baqar Najafi into the killing of Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s workers.

Qaiser Iqbal and 19 others have submitted through their counsel Barrister Syed Ali Zafar that Article 19(A) of the Constitution ensured access to information in all matters of public interest as a fundamental right of every citizen. Zafar stated in the court that the report of judicial inquiry held in the Model Town incident was a matter of public interest and the home secretary was bound under the law to give the required information to the petitioners.

He stated that this was a case of enforcement of fundamental rights guaranteed to the petitioners and to all the members of the public.

Barrister Ali stated that regardless of the evidentiary value of the findings of the inquiry, the report concerned a very important matter and everybody Pakistani citizen had the right to know what was contained in it.

He stated that the government could not stop the publication of the inquiry report as it would be blatant disregard of constitutional provisions and this refusal to provide fundamental right of access to information by the government smacked of malafide and was patently illegal. He stated that the provincial government had been incorrect in assuming that it was its discretion to ascertain the fate of the report.

Zafar said the inquiry was held for the benefit of the citizens and every individual had the right to access the report. He stated public bodies could not be allowed to withhold information on their own from the public. “They maintain information for the benefit of all members of the public,” he said.

The petitioner’s counsel stated that the LHC was the custodian and protector of fundamental rights of the citizens under Article 199 of the Constitution and it was its constitutional obligation to direct the government to publish the original draft of the report without any manipulation or tampering.

He sought directions to enforce fundamental rights of the petitioners by ordering the home secretary to immediately make the report public.

Published in Daily Times, August 24^th 2017.