Daily Times

LAHORE: Holding the Punjab government, the police along with Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif responsible for the Model Town incident, an ‘all parties conference’ (APC) called by the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) on Saturday demanded the resignation of Shehbaz and Sanaullah by January 7.“The PML-N is directly complicit in the tragedy,” said the joint declaration issued after the conference. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira while reading out the declaration said that the APC demanded the resignation of Shehbaz and Sanaullah by January 7, or else a protest would be launched.

The APC urged the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the Model Town incident and ensure an unbiased investigation through a non-partisan joint investigation team (JIT) overseen by a judge.

It demanded that no national reconciliation ordinance (NRO) should be extended to “those who have looted national wealth”.

The APC also demanded that the people who were responsible for the change in the Khatm-e-Nabuwwat oath should be given strict punishment.

The prime minister’s spokesman and PML-N leader Musaddiq Malik, while responding to the APC’s demands, told a private news channel that the opposition parties should bring a vote of no-confidence against the Punjab chief minister in the provincial assembly if they believed he had lost confidence and “they will not get more than 10 votes”.

He said that Shehbaz had not been present in the meeting during which it was decided to remove the barriers around Model Town offices of the PAT. He said those accused of involvement in the killings were facing legal proceedings and being held in jails.

Malik said the PML-N would deal with the situation “legally and constitutionally”. Addressing the press before the APC commenced, Dr Tahirul Qadri welcomed the parties who had joined him, claiming that representatives of more than 40 parties were in attendance. “The political parties gathered here today have different ideologies and agendas, but have been brought together today on a single point,” he said, referring to the Model Town incident, in which 14 people had been killed and 100 others injured when the police launched an assault on supporters gathered outside the residence of PAT chief in Model Town, Lahore. “The blood of the innocent people killed in the incident is what unites us today,” he added. He also accused ousted premier Nawaz Sharif and his family of “investing in politics” using bribery as a means to buy loyalty and establishing a “political dynasty” that was being dominated by one man. “You bought your MPAs and MNAs by sending them briefcases full of money. Can you – Nawaz and Shehbaz – deny doing that? Is this your democracy?” he asked, as he lashed out at the family. “I have seen Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s time. I have never been part of the PPP, yet I can say that political horse-trading never existed in his time,” Qadri said. Moving back to the Model Town incident, Qadri said, “You (the Sharifs) ordered the police to open fire on people and then tell us to go to courts to get justice? Till you are in power, there can be no justice.” “Your character has been revealed in the Panama Papers case and now you are planning to run away and leave Pakistan, which is why you are seeking help from foreign powers,” Qadri said, accusing the Sharifs of visiting Saudi Arabia to get the help of ‘old friends’ to get them out of the current situation.

Published in Daily Times, December 31^st 2017.