Resettlement of militants’: PHC puts offhearing petition

PESHAWAR: After the petitioners’ plea to provide further assistance to the court, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday adjourned hearing into a petition seeking formation of a high-powered fact-finding commission to identify facilitators of the “process of militants’ resettlement” in the country.

A division bench of the PHC comprising Justice SM Attique Shah and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah, while hearing the petition of Awami National Party provincial president Aimal Wali Khan, directed the petitioner’s lawyers to make proper preparation and tell as to how the court could intervene in the government policy matters. “Is it not an overstepping of authority by the court?,” the bench questioned.

Lawyer Babar Khan Yousafzai and Barrister Sultan Muhammad Khan appeared for the ANP leader Aimal Wali Khan, who had filed the petition in the high court seeking a judicial inquiry into the resettlement of terrorists in KP.

Additional Attorney General Sanaullah Khan represented the federal government. The respondents in the petition are the country’s president, former prime minister Imran Khan, provincial government through its chief secretary, former chief minister Mahmood Khan, Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, Lt-Gen (r) Faiz Hameed, and the federal government through the interior ministry.

Babar Khan Yousafzai requested the court to order the establishment of a high-power judicial commission to unmask the ones, who had facilitated the return of the militants to KP after the terrorists were defeated as a result of militancy operations. He had requested the court to fix a timeframe for conducting the probe in order to establish the facts.

He referred to different superior court judgments in support of his contention and said the courts had issued orders on different occasions for the formation of fact-finding committees and commissions for matters of public importance.He added that the deal led to an increase in the acts of terrorism in the country.