The government of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif suffered a serious blow on Tuesday when the contents of the Justice Ali Baqir Najafi report were made public on orders of the Lahore High Court.
The one-man judicial commission, formed to determine the facts and fix responsibility on the perpetrators, recalled the grisly events of June 17, 2014 in Model Town, Lahore, observing that the Punjab police had done precisely what “it went for”.
The tribunal, which investigated the killings of 14 Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers in Model Town, accused the Punjab government of concealing facts and hampering the probe, while its officials tried to cover up for each other, precluding the tribunal from reaching a final conclusion.
In its order on Tuesday, the LHC asked the Punjab government: “The copy of the inquiry report of Tribunal shall be supplied to the respondents for their information, by concerned official, forthwith. The inquiry report of the Tribunal shall be published by the concerned authorities within 30 days from the announcement of this judgment.”
Now that the damning report is out, a few questions need to be answered: Will the perpetrators of the gruesome murder of 14 civilians be brought to book and given exemplary punishment? Does the beleaguered PML-N-led government, after the ouster of its supremo Nawaz Sharif, find itself in another tight spot? Or will the punctured vehicle of democracy continue to run over the people with impunity?
