Daily Times

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) rejected on Wednesday an appeal to summon ousted Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif and former Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif in a case pertaining to the Model Town incident.

Earlier, a member of Minhaj-ul-Quran International named Jawad Hamid had filed a petition and requested the court to summon twelve individuals including Rana Sanaullah and Khawaja Saad Rafique.

Soon after the announced of the LHC’s verdict, PAT chief Tahir-ul-Qadri said he was going to challenge the decision.

Qadri objected, “How will justice be served unless those who plotted the Model Town incident are not held accountable.”

Also read LHC seeks record in Model Town case

On June 17, in 2014, at least 14 people were killed and 100 others were wounded in a police action against Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers in Lahore’s Model Town area during an ‘anti-encroachment operation’.

The Punjab government, on the orders of LHC, had made the report of the Model Town incident public on December 5, 2017.

The report read, “The level of cooperation in digging out the truth is that no police officers from top to bottom, whether actively participated in the operation or not, did utter a single word about the person under whose command the police resorted to firing upon the PAT workers.”

Also read LHC full bench setup to hear Model Town case

In April 2018, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice of the delay in proceedings in the cases related to the Model Town incident and directed the high court to decide all appeals within two weeks.