The joint investigation team (JIT) formed to probe the 2014 Model Town tragedy is expected to record the statement of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the Kot Lakhpat jail today.
The Punjab Home Department has allowed the JIT to record Nawaz Sharif's statement at the prison and has issued a notification in this regard. On Monday, Shahbaz Sharif appeared before a five-member joint investigation team (JIT) probing the 2014 Model Town incident and recorded his statement. "Shahbaz Sharif told the JIT members that he neither ordered the operation nor was it in his knowledge. When he was told about the killings, he ordered disengagement," sources said.
When contacted, PML-N Punjab spokesperson Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan said that the PML-N had reservations over the formation of the new JIT in the presence of a judicial probe into the incident. "Nothing can go beyond the court proceedings," he said, and added Shahbaz Sharif's statement was the same which he had given to the one-member judicial commission.
At least 14 people were killed and 100 others injured in police action against PAT workers in Lahore on June 17, 2014. Moreover, sources claimed that the JIT has also decided to record investigate the PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique in this case.