LAHORE/PESHAWAR: The spokesman of a commission set up last year to investigate a 2014 militant attack in which 132 children were killed in the Pakistani city of Peshawar said on Friday there was “no set timeline” for when the body would deliver its final report.
Over 150 people, most of them children were gunned down by Taliban militants in an attack on an army-run school in the northwestern town of Peshawar on December 16, 2014, the bloodiest massacre the country had seen for years.
Last October, four years after the attack, the Supreme Court formed a one-man commission comprising Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan of the Peshawar High Court and gave him six weeks to compile a report into the causes of the attack, including official negligence.
Over a year later, the findings of the commission have yet to be submitted before the top court.
“Justice Khan is a serving judge; whenever he gets time from his court responsibilities he works on the report,” Imran Ullah, the focal person of the commission, told Arab News when asked when the investigation would be completed and the confidential report submitted to the court. “There is no set timeline. It could take a while.”
Though Pakistan executed four men for involvement in the massacre in 2015, parents of the victims have made calls for a high-level investigation that would identify officials, both civil and military, whose negligence allowed the attack to take place.
The parents’ plea revolves around a letter by the National Counter Terrorism Authority, written a few months prior to the assault, alerting authorities about a plan to hit an army-run educational institution.
“Why was the security of the school not increased? Why was the threat not taken seriously?” said Ajoon Khan, a lawyer who represents some of the victims’ parents and whose son was also gunned down in the attack. “All those responsible should be made accountable.”
Until now, the commission has recorded the statements of a 100 parents and 50 state officials from the military, police, and bureaucracy, the commission’s spokesman said, adding that the final report had been delayed on account of many of the statements being very long and therefore difficult to compile, as well as due to a delayed response from military officials to a list of queries.
Andaleeb Aftab, a longtime teacher at the army school, whose 16-year-old son was killed in the attack, said she had little expectation the commission would deliver justice.
“The commission has been working for over a year and so far there is only silence from their side," Aftab said. "Our children were innocent. They were young. They had their whole life in front of them. But no one wants to give us justice.”
'No set timeline' for Peshawar school attack commission report — spokesman
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'No set timeline' for Peshawar school attack commission report — spokesman
- Over 150 people, most of them children were gunned down by Taliban militants in an attack on an army-run school in Dec. 2014
- Parents of the victims have made calls for a high-level investigation to identify officials, both civil and military, whose negligence allowed the attack to take place
UK says Pakistan regulatory overhaul to yield £1 billion a year as Islamabad launches reform drive
- Britain says it worked with Pakistan on 472 proposed reforms to streamline business rules across key sectors
- PM Shehbaz Sharif says Pakistan has stabilized economy and now aims to attract investment by cutting red tape
ISLAMABAD: Britain’s development minister Jenny Chapman said on Saturday Pakistan’s sweeping new regulatory overhaul could generate economic gains of nearly £1 billion a year, as Islamabad formally launched the reform package aimed at cutting red tape and attracting foreign investment.
The initiative, driven by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government and the Board of Investment, aims to introduce legislative changes and procedural reforms designed to streamline approvals, digitize documentation and remove outdated business regulations.
Chapman said the UK had worked with Pakistan on 472 reform proposals as part of its support to help the country shift from economic stabilization to sustained growth.
“These reforms will break down barriers to investment, eliminate more than 600,000 paper documents, and save over 23,000 hours of labor every year for commercial approvals,” Chapman said at the launch ceremony in the presence of Sharif and his team. “The first two packages alone could have an economic impact of up to 300 billion Pakistani rupees annually — nearly one billion pounds — with more benefits to come.”
Addressing the ceremony, the prime minister said the reforms were central to Pakistan’s effort to rebuild investor confidence after the country narrowly avoided financial default in recent years.
“Our economy was in a very difficult situation when we took office,” he said. “But we did not lose hope, and today Pakistan is economically out of the woods. Now we are focused on growing our economy and attracting foreign investment.”
He described the new regulatory framework as a “quantum jump” that would reduce corruption, speed up approvals and remove longstanding procedural hurdles that have discouraged businesses.
Chapman told the audience that more than 200 British companies operate in Pakistan, with the largest six contributing around one percent of Pakistan’s GDP.
She said the UK saw Pakistan as a partner rather than a recipient of aid.
“Modern partners work together not as donors but as investors, bringing all our strengths to the table,” she said, adding that the reforms would make Pakistani exports more competitive and encourage UK firms to expand their footprint.
Sharif highlighted the role of the British Pakistani diaspora and said Pakistan hoped to unlock more private capital by engaging diaspora entrepreneurs and financial institutions in the UK.
