PESHAWAR, April 9: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the administrations of North and South Waziristan agencies and high-ups of Wapda, and finance, interior and defence ministries to meet and plan the recovery of eight Gomal Zam Dam Project employees kidnapped by militants by April 30.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mussarat Hilali expressed anger at the non-recovery of the employees, observing that around eight months had passed since their kidnapping but the authorities concerned had been indifferent towards them.

It also directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor and the Wapda chairman to hold meeting and discuss the issue thoroughly to make the release of the kidnapped employees possible.

The bench ordered the member (finance) of Wapda to appear in person during the next hearing on April 30 after receiving a complete briefing from his chairman about what he intended to do about the matter.

It observed that during one of the previous hearings, the court had requested the governor to take up the issue with the Wapda chairman following which the governor had sent a letter to him. The chief justice observed that the chairman had then sent a letter to the finance division asking it to pay money to Wapda for payment of ransom amount and the said request was turned down by the finance division as the law division had raised objections to it.

The relatives of the kidnapped employees had sent an application to the chief justice few weeks ago which was converted into a writ petition. The workers were on the way to Tank district from the dam site in South Waziristan on Aug 15 when they were taken away by kidnappers.

During previous hearing on Mar 12 the court had summoned the member (finance) of Wapda, but he could not turn up on Tuesday and in his place the member (power) appeared who had no proper information about the issue. He said the member (finance) was busy in marriage ceremony of his son due to which he could not appear.

The court directed him to positively appear on the next date with proper instructions received from the chairman.

Chief security officer of Wapda Colonel (r) Mateen said he was only assigned the task to make contact with the kidnappers so as to ascertain their demands. He added that he had informed the relevant officials about the demands made by kidnappers.

The bench asked the political agent of North Waziristan, Siraj Ahmad Khan, about his steps about the recovery of kidnapped people, saying kidnappers were reportedly in his area.

The political agent replied that it was not clear in which area kidnappers had been hiding and if they received proper information in this regard, he would conduct operation there. He added that kidnappers had been frequently changing their places.

The political agent of South Waziristan, Shahidullah Khan, said in some areas of the agency, military operations were in progress and those areas were under effective control of security forces where the tribal administration had no say. He said according to his information, kidnappers belonged to Hakeemullah Mehsud group, which also had the people of other nationalities.

Mr Shahidullah said he had formed a jirga for holding talks with kidnappers but its members received threats from militants following which they lost interest in the issue.