PAT announces countrywide protest rallies from Jan 17

Lahore: The Pakistan Awami Tehreek has announced holding rallies across the country from the 17^th of this month in protest against not getting justice and the non-formation of a judicial commission on the Model Town incident.

This was decided in a high level meeting held at the PAT secretariat here on Tuesday. The rallies will protest and begin a signature campaign against the giving of a job to the main culprit of the Model Town incident Dr. Taqueer Shah, a former principle secretary of the Punjab Chief Minister, a post at the World Trade Organization. This signature campaign will be officially begin at the PAT secretariat on Wednesday.

A PAT press release said that a written complaint will be sent to the WTO giving them a brief of the role Taqueer Shah played in the killing of innocent PAT workers. Along with the complaint will be a document which will bear the signatures of all the families of the deceased and all the injured persons in the Model Town incident.

The central president of PAT, Dr. Raheeq Ahmed Abbasi said that the PAT had postponed its protest rallies after the Peshawar incident. These rallies were planned on the completion of six months of the Model Town incident, he said and added that the government is not making public the report of the judicial commission formed on the incident and in the presence of this government PAT cannot get justice. He said this was our stance and even today we remain loyal to our stance and demand the resignation of the Punjab Chief Minister before any enquiry commission starts its investigations.

Raheeq Abbasi said we demand that a Joint Investigation Team be formed and we will fully cooperate with it, but for that the Punjab CM must resign so that the families of the deceased get justice. He demanded the immediate suspension of the notification according to which a JIT was formed and all its activities must be stopped. He said we will hold accountable each and every drop of blood spilt in the Model Town incident.

He said it is not in the hands of the government to take action against those behind the Wagha Border and Peshawar school incidents, but those responsible for the Model Town incident are all here and are working for the government on lucrative posts. He said to get the commission report on the incident we had to approach the high court but to the surprise of the world the Home Secretary has as yet not sent the report to the court despite strict orders of the court.