The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the federal government to file a detailed reply in response to a petition seeking trial in a military court of Ehsanullah Ehsan, former spokesperson of the banned Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The court issued the direction after finding the government's response regarding Ehsan — who turned himself in to security forces earlier this year and is currently in their custody — inadequate.

Advocate Fazal Khan, the father of a student slain in the Peshawar Army Public School attack, had filed a writ petition in PHC, seeking the high court’s order for trial of Ehsan by a military court over different acts of terrorism, including the APS carnage.

On Tuesday, the federal government submitted a single line response to the court saying that investigation is currently underway regarding Ehsan's case.

The court expressed dissatisfaction on the government’s reply and asked the respondents to submit a detailed response regarding the case in the next hearing.

'Winning over enemies'

The director general of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor, had announced on April 17 that Ehsan had turned himself in to Pakistan's security agencies.

Right before announcing Ehsan’s surrender, the ISPR chief had said that one of the objectives of the counterterrorism operations was to restore the writ of the state and that it should be considered a major achievement if those previously indulging in wrongdoing realised that they were on the wrong side.

It is generally believed that Ehsan has been in the military’s custody since the Army responded to a string of terrorist attacks in February, which had been claimed by JuA, by shelling terrorist hideouts along the Pak-Afghan border.

Ehsan was believed to have been in hiding in Afghanistan. He was one of the founding figures of JuA, which was formed in August 2014 after splitting from the TTP. JuA is one of the most lethal of TTP’s splinter groups and has been involved in some of the most brutal attacks.

The group carried out about 120 attacks since it was formed nearly three years ago. At one stage, JuA had aligned itself with Daesh, the Arabic acronym for the militant Islamic State group. JuA subsequently returned to the TTP fold, but continued to maintain an independent identity. The group launched the so-called operation Ghazi in February that led to a spike in terrorist attacks.