LAHORE: Rejecting the Punjab government’s appeal that the Model Town inquiry
report should not be made public, a newly formed full bench
of the Lahore High Court on Monday decided to hear from October 2 the government’s inter-court appeal challenging the verdict of a single bench for releasing the
report by Justi
ce Ali Baqar Najfi into the 2014 tragedy.
The new bench is headed by Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and includes Justice Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmad Sheikh, and will hear the matter on a daily basis.
The bench observed that the questions raised by the government were of legal importance and needed to be answered.
A single bench of Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi on September 21 had ordered the Punjab home secretary to make public the Justice Najfi
report and provided a copy to the families of those killed and injured in the incident.
The counsel for the government at first questioned the juris
diction
of the single bench to decide the matter, claiming that eight identical petitions on the same matter were already pending before a full bench and a single bench could not decide it.
Earlier on Monday, a full bench
of the Lahore High Court dismissed as withdrawn six petitions
against the composition of an inquiry tribunal and for the release
of the Model Town
report. The counsel for Punjab government, Khwaja Harris, opposed the withdrawal
of the petitions.
Published in Daily Times, September 26th 2017.
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