Dr Tahirul Qadri to raise Model Town case at international fora

LONDON: Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader Dr Tahirul Qadri has announced his legal team will approach International Criminal Court, English High Court (under torture convention) and the United Nation’s Human Rights Council over the Model Town killings.

Addressing a press conference here at the Minahjul Quran Secretariat, Dr Qadri said that he had decided to approach the international forums to seek justice after failing to get justice in Pakistan in over two years. He said that top London law firms had been hired for consultations for this process and hoped that the international courts would help him get justice.  

When asked if he would bring Pakistani into disrepute taking Pakistan to the international courts, Dr Qadri said that he was “for the state of Pakistan, fighting for the solidarity of Pakistan, I am going against the Sharifs”.  He said that his group’s local organisations in London, Hague and France would raise legal funds and finances were not an issue for him.

“What happened at the Model Town was one of the worst massacres in human history. That was state terrorism. The killers remain at large. We were not allowed to even register an FIR. Fourteen people were martyred and 90 injured and despite high court orders, we have not been allowed to get an FIR registered. The massacre happened live before TV cameras but we were denied justice. Victims are searching for justice and Justice Bakir Najfi’s report has not been made public officially because this report holds Punjab police responsible for the killings," he maintained. 

“All the officers involved in the Model Town killing are now enjoying high profile positions and are working outside Pakistan," he said. “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be speaking for the Kashmiris at the United Nations this month but he will not say anything against the Model Town victims,” he said.

Dr Qadri produced visa forms of an Indian engineer who had been given ten years’ multiple visa. He claimed that Nawaz Sharif had facilitated visa for this engineer and several other Indian nationals to work in his sugar mills. It turned out that the visa was issued during the PPP government and when reporters reminded Dr Qadri of that, he said that both PPP and PML-N were part of the “restoration of democracy” agreement and were involved in similar acts.

Dr Qadri claimed that all norms and procedures were bypassed to issue visas to Indian nationals. When asked if such visas could never be issued without the approval and vetting of spy agencies, Dr Qadri said that Pakistani high commissioner in India was under the orders to bypass the agencies and issue direct visas.

He said that he had been assured by Army Chief General Raheel Sharif that he would help him get justice but said there had been no progress.  He said to his followers, “It doesn’t matter whether I live in Pakistan or any part of the world. Justice in Model Town case is what matters to me the most.”

Dr Qadri refused to answer question about Dr Shireen Mazari’s criticism of him as the “Gulen” of Pakistan. He said that Raheeq Abbasi had replied to Ms Mazari and he had nothing to add. When asked about PTI’s Raiwind march, he said that his organisation’s sympathies were with the PTI but he would not join the march.