ISLAMABAD:The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday directed the federal government to submit a report in four weeks on actions taken against those responsible for attack on Army Public School (APS) Peshawar.
A three judge bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, comprising Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed heard the case.
A total of 147 people, 132 of them children, were martyred when TTP militants stormed the APS-Warsak School, in Peshawar, in 2014.
During the course of proceedings, Prime Minister Imran Khan was summoned to explain the the position of federal government on the issue.
Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan ramarked, the parents of the martyred children were demanding action against the then government.
Responding to the question from one of the judge of the bench on the progress of implementation of commission’s report, the Prime Minister replied that his party was in power in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when the attack took place and the same night he had called a meeting of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
He submitted, he had also met the injured students as well as the families of the martyred. A National Action Plan was chalked out after the APS massacre, he informed the bench.
After the Taliban’s government came into power, around two hundred thousand afghans migrated to Pakistan out of them many were associated with ISIS, TTP and Baloch separatists who started terrorist activities inside Pakistan, said the Prime Minister adding, the security agencies foiled many attempts of terrorist attacks.
Justice Qazi Amin reminded the Prime Minister that policeman were killed in Sadhoki during PTI’s government in Punjab. Did the government made any arrests? he questioned PM.
He observed that there were reports that the government was negotiating with some group. He asked was it not the state’s job to go after and catch the true culprits?
The Chief Justice said remarked that the court had nothing to do with with the policy matters but the court was talking about provision of justice to the families of the martyrs.
Justice Ijaz said that APS tragedy was a failure of intelligence as no security was provided to keep soft targets safe.
The Chief Justice said that the APS tragedy was a big failure of the then government.
The Prime Minister said that around 80,000 Pakistanis lost their lives in the war on terror. He said that the Attorney General had told him that moral responsibility had been fixed.
He asked how to file an FIR based on moral responsibility. “I was against the war on terror since day one,” he added.
Justice Ijaz said that the court wanted assurance that the court would take action in light of the commission’s report.
The bench remarked that the Prime Minister had assured that the government would take action against responsible persons.
The Attorney General assured that the federal government would take action against all the culprits, it added.
Chief Justice said that the families of the martyred wanted compensation from the government, adding that they wanted action against the officials in high-level positions at the time of the attack.
He said that for the satisfaction of the parents who lost their children in the APS attack, these actions were necessary. He asked the federal government to listen to the stance of the victims’ parents.
Justice Amin said that Pakistan was not a small country and it has sixth largest army in the world.
The Prime Minister stated that he had a meeting with the parents of the children many times and was ready to meet them again. “I can understand the suffering and pain of the parents,” he added.
He said, he had opposed Pakistan’s involvement in the US war on terror during the tenure of former President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan had lost 80,000 lives to terrorism, while the National Action Plan was drafted after the APS attack, he added.
He said that the people were in deep trauma, they were standing behind the army in the war against terrorism.
He asked find out why 80,000 people were killed. Upon this, the Chief Justice said that finding out about these things was his job as he was the prime minister. As the prime minister, he should have the answer to these questions, he added.
The prime minister told the chief justice that the government was in pain at the loss of lives in the APS attack.
The court could constitute a high-level commission on the APS tragedy, he said and added that he believed in supremacy of law and there was no sacred cow. He said all were equal before the law.
The apex court directed the government to submit its report within two weeks, but the AGP requested the court to grant additional time. Accepting the plea, the court granted four weeks to the government.