LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday summoned Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) leader and complainant in the 2014 Model Town incident case, Jawad Hamid, for cross-examination in a private complaint for the trial of police officials.

ATC-III Judge Arshad Javed held the hearing during which two witnesses of PAT recorded their statements.

Complainant Jawad Hamid also appeared in the court, but cross-examination could not take place due to unavailability of the defence counsel. The judge directed the complainant to appear again on April 12 for his cross-examination by the defence. So far the statements of 108 witnesses have been recorded in the case.

Some defence witnesses, who were also the residents of Model Town, claimed that the workers of PAT had fired from the rooftops and threw petrol bombs on the officials of police and the district administration, who ran to save their lives.

They said the police later fired teargas shells at PAT workers but did not shoot at them. They said the police were removing the barricades placed on roads by the PAT workers.

At least 10 people were killed and around 100 injured during an `anti-encroachment` operation outside the Model Town residence of PAT chief Dr Tahirul Qadri on June 17, 2014.

Idara Minhajul Quran had filed the private complaint before the ATC against the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, sitting PM Shehbaz Sharif and almost all federal and provincial cabinets of PML-N besides officials of police and district administration accusing them of killing its workers.

However, the trial court in 2017 dismissed the complaint to the extent of political personalities and started trial proceedings against the officials of police and district administration nominated as accused by the complainant.

The previous government in Punjab led by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf had constituted a new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to re-investigate the incident.

Later, several accused police officials challenged the JIT before the LHC and got it stayed in 2019.

Former inspector general Mushtaq Sukhera, former DIG operations Rana Abdul Jabbar, former commissioner retired Capt Muhammad Usman and two other accused persons have been acquitted in the trial.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2025