PESHAWAR, Dec 14: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday put the NWFP advocate general on notice in seven identical writ petitions filed by former employees of a local school for quashment of an FIR registered against them in a case of sexual abuse of students.

The bench comprising Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan directed that the advocate general should appear on next hearing. Six of the petitioners - teachers Himayatullah, Abdul Qayyum and Mubarak Ahmad, clerks Mohammad Humayun and Shahnawaz and watchman Abdul Baseer - are behind bars, whereas the seventh petitioner, Haji Abdul Rasheed, who is a former principal of the said school, was granted pre-arrest bail by a local court.

Advocate Abdul Sattar Khan appeared for the petitioners and argued that the FIR registered against them was based on rumours and hearsay. He stated that initially two inquiries were conducted by the school and literacy department and the petitioners were absolved of the charges.

Mr Khan argued that no case could be made out on the basis of available evidence. He stated that there was no victim of abuse in the present case and the petitioners were innocent.

Apart from the seven petitioners, another former principal, Hussain Shah, had already filed a petition of the same nature before the court. The ninth accused, Gul Nawaz, has not filed any petition. Presently, six of the former staffers of the City Government Higher Secondary School No. 3 are behind bars.

Their bail petitions were turned down by a judicial magistrate and now their petitions are pending before the additional district and sessions judge. The FIR against the nine suspects was registered at Kabuli police station on Oct 23 in the light of a judicial inquiry conducted by an additional district and sessions judge, Jamal Khan.

Jamal Khan had held six suspects directly responsible for the commission of the offence, whereas three others, namely Haji Abdul Rasheed, Mubarak Ahmad and Gul Nawaz, were held indirectly responsible for the offence as the judge stated that they were aware of the ongoing abuse of students but they acted like silent spectators.