PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday asked the federal government to produce the report of interrogations of former spokesman for the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Ehsanullah Ehsan by the security agencies about his banned terrorist group and its activities.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Syed Afsar Shah also extended a stay order against the ‘grant of clemency’ to Ehsan held by the security agencies for around a year, and asked the federal government not to release him until further orders.

The bench fixed Apr 30 for the next hearing into the petition filed in this respect by advocate Fazal Khan, father of one of the several students killed by the TTP militants in the 2014 attack on the Army Public School (APS) campus in Peshawar.

The petitioner requested the court to direct the respondents, including the federal government, not to give clemency to the former TTP spokesman.

Extends stay order against ‘clemency’

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

The petitioner said the media reports suggested that the federal government had planned to give clemency to Ehsan though he had claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks.

He said around a year had passed since Ehsan had surrendered but his trial had not begun so far.

He sought orders for the trial of the former TTP spokesman by a military court. The petitioner said the defence ministry had earlier filed evasive comments on the matter, revealing nothing clearly.

He said since the government hadn’t categorically denied the clemency reports, it meant that those reports were correct.

Deputy attorney general Mussaratullah Khan said the security agencies continued to interrogate Ehsan.

He also insisted that the petition was not maintainable as under the law, the high court couldn’t hear cases falling in the ambit of the military courts.

The bench directed him to submit the report about interrogations of the former TTP spokesman.

The petitioner said as the court had stopped the government from releasing Ehsan without its permission, he sought extension in the stay order against the release.

He added that he believed that the former TTP spokesman was also one of the masterminds of the APS carnage.

The petitioner said the government had announced in April last year that Ehsan had surrendered but since then, no charges against him had come to the fore.

He said unfortunately to his utmost surprise and disappointment, the former TTP spokesman instead of being brought to justice was portrayed as an ‘unaware, innocent and brainwashed’ man, who had ‘inadvertently’ masterminded many terrorist activities in the country, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The petitioner said it was reported in the media that clemency was on the cards for Ehsan for his ‘full and frank’ disclosures.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2018