PESHAWAR, July 18: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday took exception to the non-payment of compensation to a slain missing person’s mother and warned the Accountant General Pakistan Revenue and an additional accountant general of attachment of salary if the required cheques were not made until July 23.

The compensation valuing around one million rupees is due to be paid to an old woman, whose only son was allegedly picked up by intelligence agencies before being killed and dumped by the Peshawar- Islamabad Motorway.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Qaisar Rasheed expressed displeasure over delay in payment of compensation by the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments despite making commitments before the court.

The bench had directed both the governments to jointly pay the compensation to Hamida Bibi, who had lost her missing son, Farmanullah, the sole breadwinner of her family, under mysterious circumstances.

During previous hearing on July 3, both the governments had made commitments that the cheques would be handed over to the woman during the next hearing. Deputy attorney general Iqbal Mohmand informed the bench on Tuesday that the federal finance division had released Rs500,000 but delay in issuance of the required cheques had been on part of AGPR.

He said he had conveyed the displeasure of the court over delayed payment to the relevant AGPR officials, but to no avail.

Additional advocate general Naveed Akhtar and section officer (litigation) of the provincial home department Usman Zaman informed the bench that the they had brought a cheque of over Rs300,000 as they were under the impression that the compensation would be jointly paid by the federal and provincial government and Baitul Mal.

They said they would produce a cheque of Rs500,000 on the next hearing.

The bench warned that if AGPR and the additional accountant general for the province failed to release the cheques before July 23, the next date of hearing, it would order attachment of their salary.

The chief justice observed that there was rampant corruption in different departments and the bills of the poor people had not been cleared by the accountant general office.

He wondered when the institutions would mend their ways.

The woman had complained to the court that her son, a watchman in Nauthia area, was taken into custody in Peshawar by intelligence personnel over a year ago and later, his body was found in gunnysack in the jurisdiction of Parang police station by the Peshawar-Islamabad Motorway.

The woman said her family had been struggling to make ends meet since the disappearance of her son, who was its only breadwinner.

Meanwhile, in another writ petition filed by a resident of Hangu seeking compensation for damaging his properties during military operation, the bench directed the provincial government to produce the notification through which the security forces were called in aid of the civil power in the said area.

Wali Khan Afridi, lawyer for petitioner Shaukat Hussain, said following the 2010 operation, the district administration had formed a committee to assess the value of the damaged properties.

He said the committee recommended paying Rs3.9 million to the petitioner but both the federal and provincial governments had been shifting the responsibility to each other instead of making the payment.

The bench ordered the production of the notification issued for calling security forces in aid of civil power, observing after going through the notification, it would fix responsibility for payment.