Lahore, Dec. 5 (TNS): Hours of Lahore High Court’s orders, the Punjab government on Tuesday made public the inquiry report into Model Town tragedy.
Addressing a news conference in Lahore on Tuesday, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the decision of making the report public was made on the directive of Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Terming the report full of errors and ineffective, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) provincial minister said that no one was being blamed in the report, adding that there was not a single word written in the report that could link CM Shehbaz Sharif to the deadly incident.
The report was uploaded on official website of director general of public relations Punjab.
Sanaullah also said no police officials, present at the incident’s venue, were being framed in the report. He said the PAT did not present any evidence and the report was based on “false evidences”. “Therefore, I advised the chief minister against making the report public due to concerns of creating complications,” he added.
The minister said different intelligence agencies reported that both parties were involved in the fire exchange. However, these reports from the agencies were not included in the Model Town report, he added.
The report is ineffective as it cannot be presented as evidence in the court of law, said the law minister, adding that the decision of making the report public will not impact the trial.
Fourteen supporters of Allama Tahirul Qadri, chief of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), were killed and several wounded when a police operation to clear roadblocks around the IMQ went awry and led to clashes on June 17, 2014.
Subsequently, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif appointed one-judge judicial commission, headed by Justice Baqir Najfi of the Lahore High Court, to investigate the tragedy. The provincial government, however, refused to make the report public.
