PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday issued notices to the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments asking them to separately respond to a petition against the alleged plan to give clemency to former spokesman for the banned militant outfit, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, Ehsanullah Ehsan, who is in the custody of security agencies.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Abdul Shakoor issued orders after holding preliminary hearing into the petition of Fazal Khan, father of one of many Peshawar Army Public School students, who were killed by TTP militants during the 2014 attack on campus.

The petitioner has requested the court to order the militant’s trial by a military court for different acts of militancy, including the APS carnage.

Additional attorney general Manzoor Khalil and additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad Khan, who were present in the courtroom, were asked by the bench to accept notices on behalf of the federal and provincial governments.

Father of APS student asks for ex-TTP spokesman’s speedy trial by army court

The petitioner, whose son Sahibzada Umar Khan was killed in the APS incident, requested the court to direct the respondents, including the federal government, to refrain from giving clemency to Ehsanullah Ehsan.

He prayed the court to declare that Ehsanullah be tried by a military court expeditiously and that he being a person affected by the 2014 carnage be formally informed about the findings of the trial thereafter.

The respondents in the petition are federal government through interior secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through chief secretary, defence ministry through defence secretary, Inter-Services Intelligence director general, chief of the army staff, and law and human rights ministry through its secretary.

Barrister Amirullah Chamkani, lawyer for the petitioner, said 148 students and staff members, including eighth grader son of the petitioner, had lost lives in the Dec 16, 2014, APS attack.

He added that the TTP had victoriously claimed responsibility for the attack next day through Ehsanullah Ehsan and announced plans to carry out more such attacks.

The lawyer said the state through the respondents had also affirmed and verified that the TTP had carried out the said attack.

The petitioner said he had long been making efforts to see the culprits punished so that children of other parents didn’t go through the unimaginable ordeal suffered by him, his family and numerous other parents in the form of the APS carnage.

He claimed that after a long period of almost three years, one of the masterminds of the APS incident, Ehsanullah Ehsan alias Tariq, had surrendered or had been captured by the law-enforcement agencies, which had given some hope to him (petitioner) that the perpetrators of the APS incident would be brought to justice.

The petitioner said unfortunately to his utmost surprise and disappointment, Ehsanullah Ehsan far from being brought to justice was being portrayed as an ‘unaware, innocent and brainwashed’ man, who had inadvertently masterminded the APS manslaughter and many other terrorist activities in the country, particularly in KP.

The petitioner claimed that he had learned through reliable sources that clemency was on the cards for Ehsanullah Ehsan for his ‘full and frank disclosure’ and that the possible government move was not only highly deplorable but also illegal and unconstitutional.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2017