LAHORE: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek staged a protest rally here on Thursday against non-registration of a case regarding Model Town incident on Minhajul Quran complaint.

Hundreds of PAT activists led by party secretary general Khurram Nawaz Gandapur gathered outside Masjid-i-Shuhada on The Mall in the evening and chanted slogans against the government. Former Punjab minister Raja Basharat and Chaudhry Zaheer, besides other PML-Q leaders, including Seemal Kamran, Mian Muneer and Nasir Ramzan Gujjar also participated in the rally.

Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly PTI’s Mahmoodur Rashid and others also joined the rally.

At least 11 people were killed and around 100 others injured in clashes with police outside Minhaj’s Model Town headquarters on June 17 during an operation aimed at removing security barriers.

Mr Gandapur said heirs of the Model Town episode victims would get justice only if the incumbent ‘unjust’ system was uprooted to give way to a new “pro-masses system”.

He said the party did not expect justice to its activists as long as Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was in power.

Meanwhile, PML-Q senior leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has deplored that one month has lapsed after Model Town tragedy but neither police have registered an FIR nor Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif tendered his resignation.

“The relatives of those killed (in the incident) are seeking the judiciary’s attention,” he said here on Thursday.

He said the police were trying to brush aside the matter because Shahbaz Sharif was himself involved in it and “on his orders innocent people were killed.” He said the participants of the recent multi-party conference had also demanded Shahbaz’s resignation.

“If the rulers think they will succeed in putting the matter under the carpet they are seriously mistaken,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 18th , 2014