PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Wednesday issued notice to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, seeking his response to plea of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) against the formation of a special committee of the assembly by him for probing the ransacking and torching of Radio Pakistan building in Peshawar during a protest following the arrest of former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan in May 2023.

A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal directed that the speaker should submit his reply till Jan 28, the next date of hearing of the petition filed by PBC through its Peshawar station director, Tufail Ahmad.

PBC has requested the court to declare illegal the impugned notification issued by KP Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati on Dec 26, 2025, and set it aside. It also sought interim relief, requesting the court to suspend the impugned notification until final disposal of the petition.

The petitioner has named the provincial assembly speaker and provincial government through additional chief secretary of the home and tribal affairs department as respondents.

Counsel says people accused of ransacking the building are now lawmakers

Currently, an anti-terrorism court is conducting trial in the attack case, with 75 accused, including both current and former lawmakers, being indicted on June 3, 2025, on multiple counts. The accused had pleaded not guilty and decided to face trial.

The accused persons facing trial include Provincial Minister Meena Khan Afridi, MNA Asif Khan, MPAs Fazal Ilahi Khan and Arbab Waseem, who left PTI and joined PTI-Parliamentarians, and former MPAs Arbab Jehandad, Fida Gul and Wajid Khan.

Petitioner’s counsel Shabbir Hussain Gigyani stated that in a sitting on Dec 16, 2025, KP Assembly passed a motion for constituting a special committee for probing the occurrence.

He stated that the speaker later issued the impugned notification of the 15-member special committee having the provincial law minister, Aftab Alam, as its chairperson.

The ToRs of the committee include probing and determining the actual incident occurred in Radio Pakistan, Peshawar on May 9 and 10, 2023; finding causes and circumstances of the incident to ascertain whether the incident was due to a well-planned conspiracy, and the role of law enforcement agencies and their ‘excesses’.

He said that PBC had headquarters in Islamabad and various units throughout the country, including Radio Pakistan station in Peshawar, the oldest such centre in the country.

Mr Gigyani stated that on May 10, 2023, the building of radio in Peshawar was attacked, ransacked and burned down by ‘politically charged and motivated’ persons, while FIR of the incident was registered at Cantonment police station.

He said that it was unfortunate that a number of people charged were lawmakers and at helm of affairs, running day-to-day affairs of the provincial government.

He argued that PBC had been actively pursuing its case against the accused though provincial government, through its resources, was trying its best to damage the interests of the state-owned organisation.

The counsel stated that to influence prosecution, provincial government had also appointed an additional advocate general as special prosecutor in the trial.

He argued that the assembly speaker had issued the impugned notification, ‘upsetting and taking over’ the domain reserved for judiciary as cases pertaining to different incidents, including ransacking of the building, had yet to have the final say of the trial court and therefore, the said notification was not only unwarranted but also aimed at disturbing criminal prosecution vis-a-vis judicial proceedings.

He claimed that three of the committee members were accused facing trial in the case. He argued that the speaker’s move meant for looking into the incident having penal ramifications was unconstitutional and uncalled for.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2026