Ex-IG exempted from personal appearance before ATC

LAHORE :A full bench of Lahore High Court on Thursday allowed further exemption to former Inspector General of Police, Punjab, Mushtaq Sukhera from personally appearing before the anti-terrorism court (ATC) which was conducting trial of accused in Model Town tragedy.

ATC Judge Muhammad Azam had summoned 127 people, including the IG, DIG Operations, Lahore former DCO and others. The judge had ordered the accused to appear in person and deposit surety bonds of Rs500,000 each.

Mushtaq Sukhera’s counsel submitted in the LHC that on a private complaint of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), the ATC had issued summons. He alleged that the summons were issued on baseless information provided to the trial court, as the petitioner was not holding the office of IG when the incident happened.

He had submitted that the petitioner had nothing to do with that incident. He said that the PAT people had filed a private complaint after 21 months of the incident which was without evidence. He requested the court to declare the notices as illegal and unconstitutional.

On March 3, 2016, the PAT and Minhajul Quran top people had filed a private complaint seeking trial of ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Federal Ministers Saad Rafique and Khawaja Asif and others, accusing them of murder of innocent PAT workers in June 2014.

The trial court had partially accepted PAT’s plea and summoned Sukhera and others. The court had dismissed PAT’s plea seeking trial of the ex-PM, CM, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and eight other MNAs.