PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday asked the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to respond to a petition seeking financial support for the Army Public School Peshawar students injured in a militant attack for treatment.

A bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mohammad Daud Khan directed the respondents, including the federal and provincial governments and the APS administration, to file replies in the case until March 19, the next date of hearing into a petition filed by the Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA).

The association filed the petition through its president, Mohammad Issa Khan, to request the court to order payment to the families of those killed or injured in the APS attack without further delay and without disgracing them anymore.

The petitioner also prayed the court to ask the APS administration not to ‘waste’ the money collected through donations on the construction of unnecessary monuments and blocks inside or outside the school and instead spend the same for the welfare of the schoolchildren, particularly for the rehabilitation of the injured victims of the tragedy.

Federal, KP govts told to respond to PHCBA petition until 19th

The respondents in the petition are the federal government through the interior secretary, the National Assembly through its speaker, the Senate through its chairman, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through home secretary, the provincial assembly through its speaker, the 11 Corps Peshawar station commander, and the APS principal.

Mohammad Issa Khan said around 150 students were brutally killed, while a large number of them received critical injuries of which several of them had still been admitted in hospitals battling for life.

He said after the incident, both the federal and provincial governments made tall claims for providing free treatment to the injured and adequate compensation to the families of the slain students.

The petitioner said the federal and provincial governments had forgotten their promises though the affected families and civil society were on the roads demanding help for the injured students.

He said after the APS attack, funds poured in the shape of donations from NGOs, individuals and civil society for the rehabilitation and welfare of the injured students but the school administration had done nothing tangible for the purpose.

The petitioner said recently, the school’s administration announced that the funds raised for the APS students should be spent on building a monument or some blocks, which was a misconceived idea particularly at this point of time that injured students and bereaved families for financial help for the proper treatment of their loves once.

He said the health facilities and medical relief were basic necessities of life to which all citizens of the country had a right and the state was bound by the Constitution to provide the same to them.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2015

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