• Imran appears in SC after being summoned
• Apex court deplores govt is engaging terrorists in talks

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan assured the Supreme Court on Wednesday that his government was ready to implement any order in the Army Public School (APS) attack case, saying he believed in the rule of law and that no one was above the law and there were no holy cows in the country.

However, Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed observed that Pakistan was not a small country since it had the sixth largest army in the world but “we are bringing the perpetrators of terrorism to the negotiating table instead of taking them to task”.

“Are we going to sign a surrender document once again?” observed Justice Ahmed without mentioning the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) with which the government had entered into negotiations.

The prime minister was standing at the rostrum, along with Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan, in the packed to capacity Courtroom No. 1 where he had rushed when called by a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed. He was asked to come when the AGP sought time to get instructions since the last court order was not conveyed to the premier.

The prime minister repeatedly asked the court to let him speak since he had been called by the court, but faced a volley of observations from the court pointing out the government’s perceived inaction in dealing with those responsible for not pre-empting the APS tragedy.

Invoking its suo motu jurisdiction, the court had taken up complaints of the parents of the children who were martyred in the incident. The deadly attack had left 147 people martyred, including 132 children, when militants had stormed the APS-Warsak in Peshawar on Dec 16, 2014.

Later the court directed the government to take positive steps, hear and associate with the parents of the victims, adding that this exercise should be completed in four weeks after which a comprehensive report be furnished before the court under the signatures of the prime minister.

The order also mentioned that the prime minister had assured the court that the state would ensure proper justice in accordance with law against those who failed to perform their duties.

It observed that the mothers and the fathers were unable to accept the death of their children and were holding some individuals responsible for it.

When the prime minister said he had already met the parents but was ready to meet them again, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan observed that he was like a parental figure for being the prime minister and his meeting with the parents would reassure them.

The prime minister said the court should also think about 80,000 people who lost their lives when “our own ally bombed us through 480 drone attacks” and terrorists launched attacks. But the chief justice observed that being the premier he was holding the charge of the country and had all answers to the question he raised.

Justice Ahsan observed that the loss of 80,000 people was a loss to the nation and they were heroes but nobody was stopping the prime minister from uncovering the perpetrators of terrorism.

The prime minister mentioned the campaign launched by the government to take on the terrorists who had martyred 80,000 people, demanding that something should also be done about them. Justice Ahmed observed that the court did not want to get into the past.

Reminding the prime minister that he was in office and sitting at the helm of affairs, Justice Ahmed wondered what action had been taken against those involved in the killings of nine policemen during the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan’s march – in a province where the PTI government was in place. These policemen sacrificed their lives in the line of duty, Justice Ahmed observed and wondered “whether these police officers were less important than us or the prime minister”.

The chief justice said the parents of the APS victims were not satisfied and were even ready to return the compensation if those responsible for the tragedy were not identified. “The mention of compensation is like adding injury to their injury,” he said.

“Where the entire security apparatus had gone when the incident occurred,” the chief justice wondered and said their only concern was that those who violated law should be dealt with but nothing had happened to those who had been highlighted in the last court order of Oct 20.

In the order the Supreme Court had mentioned the names taken by some of the despondent mothers of the children pointing fingers at former army chief retd Gen Raheel Sharif, former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed, then interior secretary Akhtar Shah, former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak, former Inter-Services Intelligence chief Zaheerul Islam Abbasi and former corps commander of Peshawar retd Gen Hidayatur Rehman.

The chief justice regretted that those who were in the office, including the intelligence people, were now enjoying retired life with full perks and privileges and some of them ever had been presented guard of honour.

The court ignored the suggestions made by the prime minister to order constitution of a fresh commission or registration of an FIR, saying it was already seized with the 525-page commission report of Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan of the Peshawar High Court.

It seems no effort was taken to prevent or stop this madness in the country, the chief justice observed and, waiving the constitution, said the green book ensured security and protection of citizens.

Justice Ahsan reminded the premier that the APS tragedy happened seven years ago but despite repeated orders of the court and a voluminous inquiry report, the mothers of the victims were still dissatisfied since no action had been taken against those who were at the helm of affairs at that time.

The parents only needed assurance from the prime minister that the government was doing something, Justice Ahsan observed, adding determination of the responsibility would be the biggest FIR from the public of Pakistan against those who were at the helm of affairs then.

Justice Ahsan highlighted a number of lapses since there was a clear intelligence failure and said no step was taken at the highest level to anticipate such tragedy.

Justice Ahsan recalled the last order saying the AGP was directed to get instructions from the government since the parents believed unless those responsible for the tragedy were identified for showing dereliction of their duties, justice would not be served.

The prime minister said when the incident occurred, he went to Peshawar and met the injured at the hospitals and the mothers and fathers of the deceased since the PTI was in power in KP at that time.

“Not only the victim families but the entire nation was traumatised then and we did whatever the then provincial government could do,” he said.

The prime minister however asked the court to provide him an opportunity to explain, saying the AGP had told him that the government could not lodge an FIR on moral responsibility.

Imran Khan said he was all against the war on terror. “We fought to serve the interest of the US when we trained a number of mujahideen and then former president Gen Pervez Musharraf entered into conflict under the US pressure which resulted in attacks against Pakistan even by mujahideen.

We have committed a great injustice to our country as we lost 80,000 people and scores of the security personnel were martyred,” he said. “Still after the APS incident the National Action Plan was developed and things further improved when the National Intelligence Coordination Committee was created for intelligence gathering. This led to the cessation of suicide attacks which had become an order of the day then.”

After the meltdown in Afghanistan, the prime minister said, a number of terrorist groups like the TTP and Baloch terrorists, sneaked into Pakistan but the government had pre-empted a number of terrorist attempts. However, he feared that Pakistan might face problems unless the situation in Afghanistan settled down.

At this chief justice wondered whether “we were still safe in Pakistan or not”.

Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi accompanied the prime minister when he came to the court.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2021