LHC to hear plea seeking judicial commission to probe PTI worker Zille Shah’s death

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday fixed for hearing a petition seeking the formation of a judicial commission to probe the death of PTI worker Zille Shah.

The registrar’s office listed the petition for a hearing on Tuesday (tomorrow) under the lordship of Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza.

Former prime minister Imran Khan over the weekend had accused the Punjab caretaker government of covering up PTI worker Ali Bilal’s death and urged the LHC to constitute a judicial commission to probe the matter. “I request Punjab’s chief justice to form a judicial commission on this matter today and investigate what happened with him (Bilal),” the PTI chief had said, adding that he had no hope from the government.

The petition submitted today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, by Advocate Shahbaz Akmal Jandran through Advocate Nadeem Sarwar was filed under Article 199(1) (jurisdiction of high court) of the Constitution and mentioned Punjab caretaker chief minister Mohsin Naqvi, Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman, Punjab Inspector General (IG) of Police Dr Usman Anwar, Lahore Capital City Police Officer Bilal Saddique Kamyana and Lahore Deputy Commissioner Rafia Haider as respondents in the case.

It said that Bilal was “killed, his broken, tormented body abandoned at the Services Hospital in Lahore”.

“The preliminary post-mortem report shows more blunt force trauma injures than one can count and even then his family has no hope of getting justice,” it highlighted. “He was picked up by police from Zaman Park along with other PTI activists during the party’s abortive attempt to launch an election campaign and was last videoed alive as he was being driven away in a police van”.

Narrating the developments in the matter since, the petition argued that the IG had termed the death an accident “while the post-mortem report speaks something else which makes the case of Zille Shah more suspicious”, adding that therefore the matter needed a “judicial probe so that like a civilised nation we hold accountable to official, leader and person involved in killing of innocent citizen”.

“Since the matter is of great public importance, therefore, it is high time to form a tribunal, commission or committee of inquiry into matter of definite matter of public importance under The Punjab tribunal of Inquiry ordinance, 1969 in order to save the citizens of Pakistan from being victim of barbarism and extra-judicial killing for political gains and ulterior motives.

“That the matter is of great public importance and pertains to enforcement of fundamental right to life (Article-9) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973.

“That it is also pertinent to mention here that the case in hand in not a case of individual where the legal heirs of deceased can issue statement that they do not want to peruse this case and consequent upon the statement of legal heirs case file closed. It is a case of public at large which required comprehensive probe,” the petition argued.

It requested the court to form a tribunal, commission or committee of inquiry into the matter, adding that its report should be made public as well.

The petition also requested the court to monitor all proceedings of this case and direct the government and the respondents to provide all case progress and reports to the LHC till the matter’s final adjudication.

Lastly, the plea requested that the “liability of each and every person involved in this case be fixed.”

Zille Shah’s death

PTI worker Zille Shah died while several others were seriously injured and many picked up last week as the caretaker Punjab government used force to block a rally called to launch the party’s campaign for the April 30 elections to the provincial assembly.

While PTI Chairman Imran Khan alleged that the “unarmed” worker had been killed in police custody, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah claimed that the party did not cooperate with the provincial government and that their “strange behaviour” led to the incident. Interim Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi has ordered an inquiry into the death.

Punjab IG Dr Anwar had earlier rejected allegations levelled by the PTI blaming the provincial administration for the alleged custodial killing of Bilal, insisting the incident was purely a road “accident case” which, he said, was “unfortunately misinterpreted” publicly.