LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday ordered a judicial inquiry into the Sahiwal killings as the Punjab government came up with no recommendation for the constitution of a judicial commission till the report of a joint investigation team (JIT) formed to probe the tragic incident.

During the hearing of multiple petitions by the court, Additional Attorney General Chaudhry Ishtiaq A. Khan presented a letter of the Punjab home department written to the federal government. It revealed that constitution of a judicial commission had not been recommended for want of JIT report on the incident.

At this, Chief Justice Sardar Mohammad Shamim Khan observed that the matter was of grave importance and required to be dealt with due diligence. Therefore, he directed the Sahiwal sessions judge to depute a judicial magistrate for conducting judicial inquiry into the killings and concluding it in 30 days.

JIT head Ijaz Hussain Shah informed the court that the statements of eyewitnesses Mohammad Jalil, Mohammad Afzal, Umair Khalil and Dr Nadeem Abbas had been recorded under Section 161 of CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure). However, he was unable to satisfy the court about the recording of statements of all witnesses.

The chief justice regretted that the JIT had not bothered to record statements of all eyewitnesses provided by the court.

Mr Shah undertook to record statements of all the witnesses who would appear or produce before the JIT.
The court adjourned the proceedings till March 5.

In addition to pro bono petitions filed by two lawyers, Mohammad Jalil, brother of Khalil who was gunned down along with his wife and a teenage daughter in the Sahiwal ‘encounter’, also challenged the formation of the JIT. The brother of victim Zeeshan also filed a petition.

All the petitioners mainly questioned impartiality of the JIT formed by the Punjab government and doubted its capacity to hold the real culprits accountable. They submitted that formation of a judicial commission was critical due to non-seriousness and callous conduct of the government to provide justice to the victims.

The petitioners asked the court to set aside the JIT and order constitution of a judicial commission under Section 3 of the Punjab Tribunals of Inquiry Ordinance 1969 or under Section 3 of the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Act 2017 to dig out facts of the Sahiwal incident.

At a previous hearing, the chief justice had suggested to the victims’ family to have a judicial inquiry conducted by a judicial magistrate as its report could be used in the trial, whereas the report of a judicial commission would not have such effectiveness.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2019