LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has deferred the proceedings on petitions challenging the formation of a second JIT into the Model Town tragedy for an extended term.
The LHC office received an adjournment application from the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PATattorney )’s Ali Zafar, who was on a foreign tour at the time of the proceedings.
On January 17, a seven-member bench led by Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, the Chief Justice of the LHC, was to hear the case.
In previous proceedings, the petitioner’s counsel, Azam Nazir Tarar, stated that the government’s primary motivation for forming the second JIT was that the list of the accused included some members of the Opposition.
The case is currently ongoing before an anti-terrorism court, where the witness statements are being recorded following the filing of charges. At this point, a request for a re-investigation of the case is made.
The creation of a second JIT on the Model Town massacre was challenged by petitioners Rizwan Qadir Hashmi and Khurram Rafique (police personnel).
They argued that because one judicial panel and a JIT had investigated the incident, the formation of a second JIT was illegitimate, and the trial may be postponed as a result.
They went on to say that the establishment of the JIT for the second time demonstrated the government’s vested interests.
They had requested that the notification establishing a JIT for the second time be overturned, and that the JIT’s operations be halted until the case’s final resolution.
At the moment, Justice Qasim Khan had put a stop to the notification’s execution.
