PESHAWAR: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Thursday issued show cause notice to the foreign secretary in a contempt of court petition and directed him to explain why the court’s guidelines for checking the US drone strikes in Pakistan had not been implemented.
Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Nisar Hussain Khan asked the foreign secretary to produce the sought-after explanation in writing within 20 days.
The bench was hearing a contempt of court petition filed by Foundation of Fundamental Rights (FFR), which was one of the four petitioners challenging the legality of drone strikes in Pakistan.
In the detailed 22-page judgment in a petition against drone hits, the high court had directed the government to take the matter seriously before the UN Security Council observing in case it doesn’t not succeed there due to the use of veto power by the US, then Pakistan should requisition an urgent meeting of the General Assembly through a written request to resolve the problem in an effective manner.
Barrister Shahzad Akbar appeared for the petitioner said the court had allowed the said four writ petitions and declared US drone strikes in Fata and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa war crime.
He said the court had issued wide ranging guidelines to the government of Pakistan and security forces to ensure stoppage of such strikes in future including taking up the issue before the UN Security Council and the General Assembly.
The lawyer said despite the passage of over seven months the federal government had not been implementing the said verdict.
The chief justice observed that a day earlier, the Senate of Pakistan was informed that the government had taken up the issue on the level of UN General Assembly and tabled a resolution there. He asked the counsel why he had not been awaiting the outcome of that resolution. The counsel replied that they believed that the government had been delaying the matter and had not been taking any concrete step in this regard.
Barrister Shahzad said the petitioner had on June 6 sent a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attaching the order of the high court and had requested for its implementation.
He, however, said the order was not implemented due to which further drone strikes took place resulting in killing of innocent civilians.
The respondents in the petition are: Federation of Pakistan, government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through home secretary; additional chief secretary of the Fata Secretariat; federal law secretary; foreign affairs secretary, and defence secretary.
The four writ petitions were filed by several leaders of Defence of Pakistan Council, Foundation for Fundamental Rights, tribal elder Malik Noor Khan and lawyer FM Sabir.
