PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday ordered the attachment of the salaries of the provincial chief secretary and police chief for not responding to a petition seeking orders for the federal and provincial governments to make all records of the 2014 Army Public School carnage public.

Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mohammad Daud Khan also expressed dissatisfaction with a joint reply filed by the interior secretary and the National Counter-Terrorism Authority in the case, observing the reply lacked proper information.

They directed deputy attorney general Manzoor Khalil to produce a proper reply supported by the relevant documents.

Also voices dissatisfaction with replies of Nacta, interior ministry in APS carnage case

The bench issued the directions during the hearing into a petition of lawyer Ajun Khan, father of APS student Asfand Khan, who was killed in the 2014 militant attack.

The petitioner said after the circulation of the information about the possible APS terrorist attack, it was the fundamental right of the students and their parents to know about it and the non-communication of that information amounted to the violation of fundamental rights of the parents, including him.

He said on Aug 28, 2014, the Nacta had through a letter informed the provincial government and Fata additional chief secretary that the commander of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan in collaboration with others had made a plan to carry out terrorist activities against the APS and other educational institutions run by the Pakistan Army to kill the maximum number of children of the army officers and soldiers to avenge the killing of their accomplices.

The petitioner said necessary action to counter the threat was not taken by the administration.

The bench expressed displeasure at the non-submission of replies by the provincial home secretary and provincial police officer about the case and ordered the attachment of their salaries.

Observing that over a month had passed since it had sought replies from them, the bench asked the respondents to file the same within 10 days.

While filing the reply, the DAG said the Nacta and interior secretary maintained that they had passed on a ‘threat alert’ regarding the possible attack on the APS to the provincial government in Aug 2014 following which it was the responsibility of the provincial government to adopt proper security measures.

The chief justice observed that writing few lines on a piece of paper as reply to the petition would not serve the purpose and that the reply didn’t carry official documents and records.

The DAG said he had annexed a copy of the National Plan of Action with the reply.

The bench observed that everyone was aware of the NAP and therefore, the DAG should submit something new related to that tragic incident.

Parents of the APS students, who were killed in the attack, attended the court proceedings in large numbers.

The petitioner questioned whether that was an act of criminal negligence or some secret mission or conspiracy that such a sensitive information or intelligence report was ignored which had resulted into the unforgettable incident of terrorist attack on APS on Dec 16, 2014, which had left 144 students and some staffers martyred.

The petitioner said he and his wife had lost their sleep and peace of mind since that incident and that such happening kept them pushing to wondering why the institutions failed to perform their duties to protect the people’s life.

He prayed the court to direct the respondents to answer questions raised by him and release all information and actions on the APS attack to date.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2016