The Justice Baqir Najafi Inquiry Tribunal report, at last, saw the light of day about the massacre of the 14 Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers in the broad daylight in 2014 before the television cameras. The damning, carefully crafted report implicates Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and then senior police officers in the bloodshed in veiled and vivid words, though leaving its conclusion to the readers. In the light of the report, it is better for Shahbaz Sharif and Rana Sanaullah to resign from their offices so that the trial, which has been going on directionless since its inception, must reach some logical conclusion.
Their offices can influence the outcome of the trial if they do not resign.
The Punjab government had been sitting on the report since its compilation by the tribunal, which had been established on the direction of the chief minister, who in a hurriedly called press conference on the day of the massacre had promised that if the inquiry tribunal showed an iota of his involvement in the massacre, he would at once resign.
The ensuing development belied his words as his government sat on the report and took the cover of a court order not to make it public. Now, when the court ordered the government to release the report, Rana Sanaullah took lead in pointing out ‘errors’ in the report, and also said that the report has no value addition to the ongoing trial.
If that is the case, the whole exercise of the tribunal was on a wild goose chase. Regardless of its being worthlessness in the trial, the report is politically damning for the Pakistan Muslim League-N, whose Punjab leaders have been declared guilty of hushing up the facts and trying to conceal the fact-finding exercise by the tribunal.
“"In criminology, it is a golden principle for assessment of the evidence that a man can tell a lie but circumstances don't. The facts and circumstances of the bloodbath clearly show that the police officers actively participated in the massacre”, reads the report. The report, in the light of circumstances, uncovered the bitter truth: the chief minister had ordered the operation to remove barriers placed outside the residence of PAT Chief Dr Tahirul Qadri; police officers were well aware a Lahore High Court stay order against removing the barriers; the Inter-Services Intelligence reports that the police shot straight fires at PAT workers who were resisting the police; government and police officials tried to hush the matters and did not state facts before the inquiry tribunal and so on.
There are lessons for the government in the report. A greater transparency in matters related to the government helps the victims of violence to gain justice. A society working on the principles of justice leads to the welfare and betterment of the public. Also, the police force, working blindly to the wishes of the executives and political masters are bound to face the wrath of the law of the land sooner or later.
The report may not help the victims of the tragedy immediately, but it will be guiding light for the police force, the executives, civil society and the public at large that circumstances do not hide the murderers, and this report sees blood on the hands of the present government set up.
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