Court has to follow law: PHC

APS attack case

Seeks reply from KP govt over BHUs
handover; dismisses QWP MPA appeal in defamation case

PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel observed on Tuesday that law is equal for all and the court has to follow the law.

He made the observation while hearing a writ petition seeking the court’s order for making public all the information regarding the December 2014 terrorist attack on the Army Public School (APS).

“We understand the sentiments of the parents of the martyred students of the APS, but everything has to be done as per the present law. The law is equal for all,” the chief justice remarked when the petitioner questioned the response of both the federal and provincial governments in the APS carnage to the parents.

The two-member bench comprising the chief justice and Justice Daud Khan extended the court order on stopping the salaries of secretary Home and Tribal Affairs and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to May 18 after Additional Advocate General Umar Farooq Adam said that the reply of the officials concerned in the case would be submitted in a day or two. The court had earlier stopped the salaries of the officials after they failed to submit reply in the petition.

The bench also issued notice to the provincial and federal governments in an application filed by the mothers of the children killed in the APS attack who wanted to make them parties to the petition.During the previous hearing, the court had also termed the federal government reply unsatisfactory and directed it to submit a better and proper reply.

Lawyer Ajun Khan, father of the student Asfand Khan who was killed during the terrorist attack on the APS, had filed the petition.Deputy Attorney General Manzoor Khalil, representing the federal government, submitted at the previous hearing that the Ministry of Interior and National Counter-Terrorism Authority had submitted replies as directed by the court.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was given prior information about the terrorist attack on the APS. He argued that the provincial government was responsible for security, not the federal government.

However, the chief justice declared the federal government’s reply unsatisfactory. He observed that the reply of just two lines was not the proper answer to the questions that were raised about the school attack.

 “There is no record regarding the school carnage and other documents,” the chief justice had told the Deputy Attorney General at the time.Meanwhile, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) has directed the provincial government to submit a reply in seven days in a writ petition filed against the hand-over of the Basic Health Units (BHUs) in 17 districts and three agency hospitals to national and international non-government organisations in 2013.

A division bench comprising Justice Irshad Qaiser and Justice Syed Afsar Shah directed the additional advocate general, representing the provincial government, to ensure the reply within a week’s time.

The court also sought reply, before next hearing, from the national and international NGOs, including Save the Children, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Caravan, Abaseen Health Foundation and URDO to submit replies in a petition challenging hand-over of the BHUs and agency hospitals to them.

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had challenged the hand-over of the BHUs in 17 districts and three agency hospitals to People’s Primary Healthcare Initiative (PPHI) besides several rural health centres to national and international NGOs through his lawyer Mohibullah Kakakhel.

In a petition, PMA KP President Dr Hussain Ahmad Haroon, requested the court to take notice of the matter as it amounted to privatisation of health infrastructure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was contrary to judgments of the superior courts.

The petitioner stated that BHUs in 17 districts and three agency hospitals had been handed over to the PPHI. He stated that the Health Department had given Timergara District Headquarters Hospital to an international NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

He said a rural health centre at Nahqi area in Peshawar had been given to another NGO Abaseen Health Foundation three years back, whereas the health units in Battagram district were given under the control of an international NGO, Save the Children.

The petitioner stated that the BHUs and RHCs were public properties and national assets. He contended that the provincial government had declared functions of the Health Department as essential service therefore no health unit could be given in the control of private sector.

Meanwhile, the PHC on Tuesday dismissed an appeal of Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Bakht Baidar Khan seeking decision in his defamation suit against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on the basis of reply submitted in the trial court.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Daud Khan dismissed the appeal against the decision of the trial court after hearing the arguments of the lawyers from both the parties.

The QWP MPA had filed the appeal against the trial court’s decision, in which his application was dismissed, requesting the trial court to decide his defamation suit against Imran Khan on the basis of reply by the defendant in the suit instead of recording evidence.

The petitioner’s lawyers submitted that the PTI chief had admitted in his reply before the trial court that his statement about allegations of corruption against the petitioner in the media was true and was made publicly.

The appellant requested the court to direct the trial court to decide the defamation suit on the basis of replies as to bring evidence from the Twitter account would take time as it needed the statements of the officials from United States.

The lawyers claimed that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had fired two QWP ministers, i.e. the then environment minister Ibrar Hussain and labour minister Bakht Baidar on the directives of PTI Chairman Imran Khan on corruption charges.

Imran Khan’s lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar submitted before the bench that for the first time in the Indo-Pak judicial history, an appellant (Bakht Baidar) who filed defamation suit for damages had got the proceedings stayed in his defamation suit from a high court.