The 2014 Model Town incident where 14 unarmed people including women were gunned down by Punjab police is one of the worst incidents of police brutality in the country. What was worse is that the incident happened right in the center of Lahore, capital of the province governed by the self-professed ‘Servant of the people’, Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The incident was entirely avoidable, if it wasn’t for the conscious or unconscious criminal behavior of the Punjab government.
The fact that those responsible for the murders have not been brought to justice more than three and a half years on shows exactly what is wrong with this country. In any civilized country the Chief Minister of the province where the incident happened or the Law Minister at least, would have resigned. But decency and responsibility are words perhaps alien to our political elites.
Dr. Tahir ul Qadri has been very vocal against the government and has stood by the victims in demanding justice but his demand for justice has a clear political leaning. With general elections fast approaching, this year Qadri has been joined by Pakistan People’s Party and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and a number of other parties who have all decided to back Qadri in seeking justice. The demand for justice for the victims of the Model Town massacre has been hijacked by those with political agendas. It seems that the incident will be used by political parties to put pressure on the ruling government with elections in sight. PAT must not let the issue politicize because it would be another injustice to the victims and their families.
It was expected that united opposition will open a new chapter of politics of protests and sit-ins, but it seems that it was one day protest. It was hoped that opposition will give difficult time to the federal and provincial government regarding demand of resignation of Chief Minister of Punjab. But after Wednesday’s show of Opposition, Shehbaz Sharif must have taken a sigh of relief. United opposition seemed clueless regarding their strategies to press for their demands. While protesting, leaders of two major political parties could not share stage due to their political differences. Putting aside the outcome of protest of united opposition, there is no second opinion that culprits of brutal incident of Model Town must have been brought to justice by now.
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