Govt to form JIT over attacks on courts, law enforcement personnel

Picture source - AFP

The ruling coalition, headed by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), agreed to create a powerful Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on Tuesday to look into the assault on the courts and the law enforcement personnel stationed there to protect the Federal Judicial Complex (FJC) when former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan was scheduled to appear.

The ruling coalition decided to take tough measures against the PTI and launch legal action against the party, its leadership and its supporters for persistently contesting the authority of the state the day before the decision to form a JIT to look into violent attacks by “armed groups” on the police and courts.

Imran Khan and more than a dozen other PTI leaders were the targets of a first information report (FIR) filed by the Islamabad Police on March 18 for allegedly beating police officers, looting, torching cars and causing mayhem within and outside the FJC.

When Imran came at the FJC to attend a hearing in the Toshakhana case, the altercations had been going on for hours. The PTI leader was present at the FJC’s gate but was unable to join court proceedings because of the situation.

In addition to threatening legal action, the federal government’s six-hour meeting of the parties on March 18 under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif hinted at the possibility of banning PTI because of the party’s alleged role in attacks on state institutions like the army, judiciary and law enforcement agencies.

The attacks on the police and Rangers, who were carrying out court orders when they went to Imran’s Zaman Park mansion in Lahore and when Imran arrived with his supporters in a court in Islamabad the other day, were reportedly carried out on the PTI chairman’s orders.

The Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb stated that the interior ministry had prepared a summary for the formation of the powerful JIT and that it will be sent to the prime minister for his formal approval. This statement was made just one day after the lengthy meeting of the PML-N and its allies at the Prime Minister House.

According to a spokeswoman for the administration, the JIT would include of senior police and interior ministry employees, as well as agents from the intelligence community. The attack and injuries suffered by the police at the Islamabad Judicial Complex will be investigated by the JIT and a report will be submitted within seven days.

The minister continued by saying that the JIT will gather information on the “petrol bomb attacks” as well as the involvement of “trained militants” from outlawed groups in the assault on the courthouse.

According to Aurangzeb, any evidence of PTI supporters smashing down the court complex’s gate, attacking law enforcement with stones, and torching motorbikes and other vehicles will also be gathered.

The ruling alliance also resolved during its Monday meeting that individuals waging a smear campaign against the army, its commander and the Lasbela martyrs from overseas would face legal repercussions. They said that this behavior was improper in any culture and that “freedom of speech” does not apply in this situation.

Further, the alliance leaders raised worries over the punishment meted out to the PTI chairman by the courts, saying, “The treatment of Imran Khan and his colleagues is deepening the impression that the scales of justice are not equal”. “Two standards of justice in one country are not acceptable,” said the official statement.