PESHAWAR, Nov 16: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday allowed more time to the ministry of defence to submit an inquiry report related to the last year's Air Blue plane crash, which had left 152 persons dead.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Yahya Afridi fixed Dec 20 for the next hearing of a writ petition filed by former MNA, Ms Marvi Memon, on behalf of the family members of the deceased passengers.

The bench directed the deputy attorney general, Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand, to submit the report positively before the next hearing as no more time would be allowed in this regard. The bench observed that the court had ordered the government to submit the inquiry report several months ago but so far the same had not been produced.

The petitioner has prayed the court to direct the federal government for constituting an independent board of inquiry to determine and make public the cause of crash. On July 28, 2010, an Air Blue flight ED 202 crashed into Margalla hills in Islamabad, killing all 146 passengers and six crew members on board.

Mr Mohmand requested on behalf of the federal secretary defence to allow four months more time for submission of the inquiry. He stated that the government had sent the inquiry report to the manufacturing company of the crashed plane and had been awaiting its comments.

He stated that the said company was expected to submit its reply within 90 days following which the government would take about 30 days to finalise its findings in the light of that report. He said that the comments of the manufacturing company were important in the inquiry.

The bench observed that for the last many months he had putting forward the same plea that the report was sent to the manufacturing company.

Advocate Umer Farooq Adam appeared for the petitioner and requested that the government may be directed to at least produce the initial inquiry report which was sent to the manufacturing company. He contended that despite the passage of over a year the relatives of the deceased persons were yet to know the cause of accident.

The petitioner has contended that like other previous plane crashes neither the inquiry report of this crash had been made public nor the families of victims were taken on board about the progress of investigations. — Bureau Report