The Lahore High Court on Wednesday expressed grave concern over unavailability of Punjab Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and asked the government to submit its reply by November 24 in an intra court appeal of the government assailing a decision of making Model Town's inquiry report public. Opposing a government's argument about availing first available remedy under the law, the counsel of heirs of the Model Town incident victims Azhar Siddique argued that the first remedy in shape of the information commission was inadequate to address the grievance of people.
The lawyer pointed out that the information commission was not fully functional as posts of its chief information commissioner and two members had been lying vacant for a long period. He said the government recently appointed a former MNA Naseer Ahmad Bhutta as chief information commissioner on political grounds. However, he also resigned after some days owing to criticism and litigation.
Azhar argued that the alternate remedy had become ineffective due to dysfunctional information commission. While, he said, the home secretary had already dismissed an application of the victims for the provision of the report. Therefore, the petitioners were left with no other option but to approach the high court for the provision of the report, he said while concluding his arguments.
Earlier, Khwaja Ahmad Tariq Rahim also closed his arguments with a note that the bench had no need to go into technical points raised by the government but to decide as to what the law requires. He said most of the judgments relied upon by the government to establish its authority to not release the report were irrelevant to the case. Azam Nazir Tarar and Ali Zia Bajwa also concluded their arguments on behalf of two policemen facing trial in the Model Town killing case.