After the federal government announced peace talks with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Supreme Court of Pakistan – hearing the grievances of families of Army Public School students killed in the grisly 2014 attack – has given the federal government four weeks to present its course of action against those guilty of negligence.

“The parents are unable to accept the deaths of their children, and squarely blame the persons who are pointed out in a previous court order on October 20 for their dereliction of duties and performance of their function. Let positive steps be taken by the state/ federal government. In doing so, the parents of innocent school children should be associated [with the process] and heard. The exercise will be done within a period of four weeks from the date of hearing (November 10), and a report signed by the PM will be placed before the court for consideration,” wrote Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed in his order following the last hearing.

The TTP has claimed hundreds of attacks in Pakistan since its formation as an alliance of militant groups in 2007, killing more than 70,000 civilians and security personnel. In the Army Public School attack on December 16, 2014, claimed by the TTP, at least 147 students and some teachers were killed in a school in Peshawar.

The SC had taken a suo motu notice of the attack in 2018. This had led to the setting up of a judicial commission to probe into the incident. The commission submitted an over 500-page report to the SC in 2020, which was made public on the request of the parents of the victims. Later, the parents showed dissatisfaction with the report and urged the court to fix responsibility for serious security lapses in a protected zone. Since September 2020, the matter had been pending in the SC.

Following the government’s announcement of talks with the TTP, the parents once again urged the SC to consider the matter extraordinary, and to fix responsibility as they were not satisfied with the actions taken by the state.

The case was taken up by the court after almost a year. The second hearing of the case came after the prime minister hinted at talks with the TTP in a televised interview on October 1. For this hearing, the chief justice had summoned the prime minister to the court.

In November, before the SC hearing, the prime minister had said that the government was conscious of its responsibilities, and was taking all possible steps to ensure that the aggrieved parents get justice.

Advocate Amanullah Khan Kanrani, who has been associated with the case says, “There appears to be a new life in the case after the recent developments [in October]. The courts can definitely play an important role here given how these parents symbolically represent all victims of terrorism in the country.” He says the case has become more important in the backdrop of the talks between the government and the TTP. He says that the parents are determined to press their demand for action against the culprits and top officials named in their petition to the SC. While the judges have said that the ongoing talks are a policy matter, they want concrete action against those responsible for the attack, a key demand of the parents.

After the prime minister hinted at talks with some TTP groups, parents of the deceased students staged a couple of protest demonstrations in Peshawar and Islamabad and opposed the federal government’s proposal of amnesty for the militants. In Islamabad, civil society groups and some of the parents holding a demonstration, had urged the government to review the plan for peace talks.

In its October 20 order, the SC wrote: “The mothers complain that the Army Chief, Interior Minister, Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Corps Commander Peshawar, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence, Secretary Interior of that time are culprits of neglect, and action must be taken against them.”

“If the state considers that the people noted above have caused dereliction of duty and failed to perform their function, leading to the terrorist attack, the state should take measures for that. We understand that unless some drastic efforts are made perhaps, the parents of the deceased school children will not be satisfied as what they say is that petty officials have been dealt with, but those occupying high posts have been allowed to go scot-free, whereas the basic responsibility was upon those at the helm of affairs,” it adds.

Speaking before the SC hearing, the prime minister had said that the government was conscious of its responsibilities and was taking all possible steps to ensure that the bereaved parents got justice. He had said that those who were responsible or had failed to perform their responsibilities will be taken to task, in accordance with the law.

“These terrorists have taken so many innocent lives. They do not deserve amnesty,” one of the parents not wanting to disclose his name told The News on Sunday. “Instead of taking action against those guilty of neglect, and publicly hanging the killers, this government is talking about amnesty at the behest of the Afghan Taliban.” Another father said that they now saw the top court as their last and only hope for justice.

The author is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com. He tweets @waqargillani