Petitions against 2014 dharna: LHC seeks report of judicial inquiry into ‘1990 attack’ on Qadri

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed federal and provincial governments to come up with a 26-year old judicial inquiry report conducted by the then Justice Akhtar Ali which reportedly held that incident of life attempt on Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s Chairman Dr. Tahirul Qadri in 1990 was fabricated. 

A full bench headed by Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq and comprising Justice Kazim Raza Shamsi and Justice Ibadur Rehman Lodhi passed the order while hearing petitions against 2014’s sit-in by Pakistan Awami Tehreek and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf. 

Rana Ilamuddin Ghazi, Amjad Ali Qasim, Lawyers’ Foundation and many others had moved the petitions challenging joint sit-in (dharna) of PTI and PAT staged in Islamabad during 2014.   During the proceedings, Justice Haq asked the petitioners’ counsel if the petitions had been infructuous as the activity challenged before the court was no more in action. However, A. K Dogar contended that these petitions had not been infructuous as the question of fundamental rights had been raised in the petitions.  

Dharnas and long processions badly affected the fundamental rights of the citizens and disturbed government functioning, therefore, these petitions should be decided on merit. When the bench asked about the 1992’s judicial inquiry report which held that incident of life attempt on Allama Tahirul Qadri was fabricated, the lawyers said the report was never made public. 

The LHC registrar also submitted a report saying that the inquiry held by retired justice Akhtar Ali was handed over to the then Punjab Chief Secretary. The petitioners’ counsel said the commission report had termed Mr. Qadri ‘a pschopath’ and also held that the incident of life attempt was fabricated. 

At this, the bench directed federal and provincial government to come up with that report on the next hearing and adjourned the proceedings to January 23, 2018. The petitioners had submitted that PTI and PAT both wanted to create unrest in the country and leading the country towards anarchy. Their dharnas would badly affect the fundamental rights of the citizens and would disturb the government functioning, they said. They had prayed the court to stop both the parties from taking out long procession from Lahore to Islamabad.