PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued a notice to former Pakistani President General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf for allowing drone attacks in the tribal areas while the Additional Political Agent North Waziristan Agency Zahidurdin Babar submitted the details of loses caused in drone strikes from 2008 to 2012 in sealed form.
A two-member bench comprising acting Chief Justice Justice Maftahuddin Khan and Justice Seth Waqar hearing a petition by Advocate FM Sabir served notice on President Pervez Musharraf to appear before the court on next hearing to explain his position.
Advocate Sabir of Difa-i-Pakistan Council (DPC) and Foundation for Fundamental Rights (FFR) had filed a writ petition against the drone attacks in Fata and the killing of innocent people including women and children in these attacks.
The PHC bench in the last hearing on September 21 had directed the political authorities to provide complete details of the people killed in the drone strikes by October 23.
North Waziristan’s Additional Political Agent (APA) Babar during the last hearing had pleaded before the court that due to the law and order problem the political authorities could not move around in the troubled areas so the compiling of complete details was a bit difficult.
The Chief Justice Dost Mohammad had also rejected the APA’s plea on September 22 to meet in chamber and had summoned the political agent on Oct 24 and had asked to provide details to the court about the drone affectees.
Earlier on August 15 the PHC had also sought a detailed report from the government regarding losses due to drone strikes in Fata.
The APA Babar had earlier presented a report regarding human and material losses due to drone attacks in the Fata till 2008 but terming the report incomplete, the chief justice Dost Muhammad Khan had said that the report doesn’t show the ages of the deceased and the details of destruction caused by the missile strikes.
The APA compiled the remaining details of the losses caused by drone strikes from 2008 to 2012 on October 24, Wednesday.
During the last hearing, the high court had directed the federal government and the political agents of North and South Waziristan agencies to provide details of the US drone strikes in their respective areas, including the number of such attacks, names and number of people killed by them and other collateral damage.
The court had also directed the federal government to provide attested copies of resolution passed by the parliament and the minutes of the cabinet’s defence committee on drone attacks.
It had also directed deputy attorney general (DAG) Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand to provide details of the protests lodged by the Foreign Office to the US government against these strikes and the follow-up to them.
The government had apprised the PHC earlier that there was no verbal or written agreement between Pakistan and the US allowing drone attacks so these attacks were a clear violation of country’s sovereignty.
During October 24 hearing Sabir Advocate had pleaded that Musharraf was not appearing in the case so his arrest warrants must be issued.
The two member bench headed by acting CJ Justice Miftahuddin however, served a notice on former president Musharraf.