Antiterrorism Court decides to hear Model Town case on daily basis

Chaudhry Muhammad Azam, judge of the antiterrorism court, has termed the Model Town case as being highly important and said that its hearing will now take place on daily basis.

Advancing their arguments in the private complaint in the Model Town case, PAT lawyers said that Tanzila Amjad was the first person to have been killed by police in front of the gate of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s residence on June 17, 2014. They said that the police commandos wanted to forcibly enter the house whereas the women workers had formed a chain of hands to stop the police from entering. They said that DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar said that he would count up to three and if the women did not withdraw from the gate, firing will start. And it was what happened. A volley of bullets was fired at Tanzila Amjad and she died on the spot.

Rai Bashir Ahmad, chief lawyer of the panel, argued that if the purpose of police action was to remove barriers, which barriers were placed in front of the residence of the PAT lawyers? He said that the unarmed workers were guarding the house of their leader, whereas the barriers were placed far away from the residential place. He said that police was able to remove barriers without any resistance and no worker came their way. He said that it only means one thing that it was not the removal of barriers for which police had come. Rather the objective was to fulfill the political desires of their bosses, which was possible by indulging in blood shedding.

Naeem-ud-Din Chaudhry Advocate, Lehrasib Advocate, Mustaghees Jawad Hamid Advocate, Ishtiaq Ch Advocate, Yasir Advocate, and Noorullah Siddiqui were present in the court of law on the occasion.

The PAT lawyers submitted postmortem and MCL reports to the court. Rai Bashir Advocate asked as to why the police wanted to enter the residence of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri and MQI secretariat, whereas barriers were far away from both of these places. He said that when the police officers loudly ordered to demolish the check post in the park in front of Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri’s house, they were told that the copies of the Holy Quran are present in the check post. DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar asked the police officials not to hear anything and go ahead with the demolition. He said that the check post was demolished and the copies of the Holy Quran were desecrated whose proofs are present.

The PAT lawyers said that it is the first case of history in which the prosecutors are speaking in favor of the killers instead of the killed and the wronged, though their primary responsibility is to help the court in dispensation of justice but they have become a party, which is not only against the law but also various decisions of the higher judiciary. He said that the ATC judge asked about whereabouts of DIG Rana Abdul Jabbar during the last hearing but no information was provided by the government’s lawyers. He asked the worthy judge to also inquire about the whereabouts of SP Abdur Raheem Sheraiz and SP Tariq Aziz.