Pakistan top court questions PM over peace talks with militants behind 2014 school massacre

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared before the country’s top court on Wednesday, promising to take action against negligent officials whose carelessness facilitated the massacre of young children at the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar, said information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain after the court hearing.
A group of heavily armed militants belonging to the proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction entered the APS building in a high security area of Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on December 16, 2014, and killed about 130 children and 17 staff members.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan, which has been hearing a case related to the incident, summoned the prime minister to question if his government had acted against those involved in the attack and those responsible for providing security.
The prime minister during the court hearing said there was “no holy cow” in the country and said he would take action against anyone named by the court, reported the local media.
Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed said action was taken against low-ranking individuals such as soldiers and watchmen while senior officials were still enjoying their perks and privileges.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan, another member of the bench, maintained the satisfaction of the parents who had lost their children in the attack was necessary.
“The main handlers [responsible for the attack] have already been eliminated,” the information minister told journalists after attending the court hearing. “The [Supreme Court] has now asked us to determine those who had moral obligations. We have a [judicial] commission’s report on this. So, we will complete [our inquiry] and present [its findings] to the court in four weeks.”
Pakistan’s former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar had appointed a judicial commission in October 2018 to determine the facts related to the massacre. After about two years, the commission submitted its report in July 2020 in the apex court which included the statements of victims’ families.
The country’s interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the prime minister had “explained the situation” to the top court.
“The Supreme Court has given us four weeks … The prime minister has assured [the judges] that the government will expose those who were responsible, be it an interior minister, people from higher [intelligence] agencies or anyone else,” he said.
In a previous court hearing regarding the case, bereaved families of APS children had complained that the country’s leadership had not taken serious steps against those who were responsible for security negligence.
The top court summoned the prime minister only days after the government announced it had reached a “complete cease-fire” agreement with the TTP.
Thousands of Pakistanis lost their lives in violence generated by TTP militants in the last two decades and the group has accepted responsibility for several high-profile attacks, including an assassination attempt on activist and now Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai and the attack on APS in Peshawar.