Daily Times

While taking up a petition demanding an impartial inquiry into the Sahiwal killings through a judicial commission, the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday summoned Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) to appear on January 24 along all of the documents pertaining to the case.

Lawyer Mian Asif Mahmood had on Monday petitioned the LHC arguing that the JIT formed by the provincial government would not be able to find out the truth and hold the responsible police personnel accountable for their crime. The petitioner contended that the incident was ‘a matter of people’s lives and the high court holds the authority to investigate’. It argued that the government should have created a commission to probe the counter, rather it formed a JIT and ‘did away with its responsibility’.

The government does not want a transparent inquiry into the Sahiwal incident, the petitioner claimed, calling for the formation of a judicial commission headed by a sitting judge to look into the matter and accord punishment to those responsible for the deaths. He pointed out that the statistics of Punjab police revealed that it conducted 247 encounters in 2017, 91 in 2018 and about seven were reported during the first month of 2019.

The petitioner asked the court to direct the prime minister to constitute a judicial commission to hold an impartial inquiry into the incident. He submitted that the Punjab chief minister should also be directed to furnish a copy of a detailed report regarding the incident and other fake encounters and action taken against the police personnel. He also sought a direction for the provincial police chief to bar his officials from opening fire on fleeing suspects and not equip them with automatic weapons.

Published in Daily Times, January 23^rd 2019.