It was a massacre that shook the nation. On 17 June 2014, 14 political activists of Pakistan Awami Tehreek were shot dead by police at Minhaj-ul-Qura’n secretariat, Model Town, Lahore. This illegal and unannounced operation was carried out by Punjab police before Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri’s arrival and the only agenda behind this midnight operation was to harass the people and keep them from joining Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri’s antigovernment movement. Police tortured elderly, women and children which was live broadcasted on all national and local TV channels. They opened fire on the unarmed and peaceful workers and killed 14 people including 2 pregnant women and leaving hundreds of youth injured and disable for the rest of their lives.
PMLN and Sharifs bear a long legacy of state-sanctioned police brutality against their political opponents and model town massacres on 17th July 2014 and police brutality against the unarmed and peaceful protestors on 31st August 2014 are testimony to that.
PAT continued to demand justice for their martyrs through ATC and kept protesting on roads as well. But after two and half years, ATC finally broke the silence by refusing to try Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and eleven others, including some federal and provincial ministers, for killing of Pakistan Awami Tehreek workers during the 2014 Model Town incident. And so, the ugly truth of our country is once again in dead bodies littering the ground. The truth of PMLN’s rule is that people asserting their rights and dignity have been brought down in a hail of bullets.
PMLN and Nawaz Sharif promised their voters and citizen a Roshan (bright) Pakistan. But how can something so reminiscent of the country’s most violent apartheid past happen in a democratic “Roshan Pakistan?” Two and a half years on – all the questions remain unanswered. Families of the martyrs are still denied justice and their search for closure goes on.
Back in 2014, in response to intense public pressure in the sit-in, a commission of inquiry was announced to investigate who had given the orders that day to open fire on PAT activists. Justice Baqir Ali Najfi’s commission report directly held Punjab Govt. and CM Shahbaz Sharif to account. Realizing that they’ve been nominated and held directly responsible for the bloodbath in Model Town, Sharifs did not let the report get published.
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ATC, yesterday, refused to try CM or any other person nominated by PAT because of “lack of evidence.” This, despite evident that the decision to disperse and disarm the political workers would not have been taken without guidance from the Chief Minister of Punjab, the Punjab Govt. was also absolved of any responsibility.
Spokesperson of Pakistan Awami Tehreek said that they will announce their next course of action after deciding and discussing all the possible options in their executive council’s meeting. But what option do they have? They will protest, their workers and lawyers will go for some other legal course, Sharifs will eventually find a way to get themselves exonerated (like they always do) but what about the martyrs and the families of those killed?
Shamefully, our judicial system remains silent on their fate – the issue of compensation is ‘beyond its remit’. Not only that it is a feeble offering to those left without their loved ones, and still shattered by the violent manner of their deaths but also because the families refused to take any money as compensation. All they want is Qisas (blood for blood) and already deprived of their breadwinner, their struggle deepens.
As ever, anger and frustration lie at the heart of a voter. What happened at Model Town Lahore was a tragedy; the investigation that followed a travesty. Yet still the tragedy continues as the families of victims are denied justice.
I’d like to quote Bishop Rubin Phillip to sum it up:
Has nothing changed in our place, when its truth remains that the armed might of the state acts for the elite of powerful and wealthy, and against our people? No self-righteous declarations of “tragedy”; no insisting on “complexity”; no obfuscating “commissions of inquiry” are enough to hide that truth.
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