PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday rejected a monument built for the victims of the 2014 Army Public School carnage and asked the Peshawar Development Authority and archives department to engage a competent architect to prepare its new design.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Nasir Mehfooz directed the PDA director general and archives secretary to prepare the new design in accordance with the aspirations of the parents of the martyred students and submit it to the court for approval.

The bench expressed dissatisfaction with the monument put up outside the Archives Library on Sher Shah Suri Road, observing that the APS carnage was one of the most tragic incidents in the country and therefore, the monument should be in accordance with international standards.

Petition insists fiberglass structure doesn’t represent sacrifices of schoolchildren

It was hearing a petition filed by the fathers of several martyred students including advocate Fazal Khan, Dr Zahoor Alam, Zafar Iqbal Siddiqui and Tariq Khan against the structure on different grounds. The bench fixed Jun 27 for next hearing of the petition.

The court had earlier in Jan stayed the inauguration of the monument.

On Dec 16, 2014, terrorists had attacked the APS campus here leaving 144 persons including 132 students martyred and scores of other injures. It was a demand of the parents that a Shuhada Monument shall be constructed in remembrance of the martyrs.

Higher education and archives secretary Zulfiqar Haider told the bench that he had recently been appointed against the said post. He said whatever order the court gave the department would follow it.

The bench directed PDA DG Israrul Haq that he would be having competent architects in his department and he should seek their assistance in preparing design of the monument which should be in accordance with the aspiration of the parents of the martyred students.

Mohammad Ayaz Khan and Mumtaz Khan, lawyers for the petitioners, said the monument was not up to the mark as a structure of fiberglass was placed, which was unsuitable for representing the schoolchildren’s sacrifices. The counsel said the current monument didn’t reflect the sacrifices rendered by the martyrs, mostly APS students.

They claimed that initially, the PC-I was approved by the competent authority and a grant of Rs15 million was sanctioned and made available by the provincial government as the project cost.

The counsel however said a revised PC-I was initiated and approved whereby a meagre sum of Rs6.6 million was earmarked for the construction of the monument.

They added that the revised plan had Rs8.4 million for the purchase of books. The counsel said their clients had sought the record of the project but the government didn’t do so.

They said the petitioners also sought details about the project by invoking the Right to Information Act, but to no avail. The lawyers said the government was bound to follow the original Rs15 million monument plan.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2018