PESHAWAR, March 6: The Peshawar High Court has clarified a news item titled “Judicial officers occupy principal’s quarter in Swat” that appeared in Dawn on March 5, saying that a local MPA levelled baseless allegations through a call attention notice in the provincial assembly to malign the judicial officers.

A spokesperson of the high court clarified that the house had been officially allotted to the concerned judicial officer by the then district coordination officer in June 2012 and said that house rent was being deducted from the salary of the judicial officer.

The spokesperson said that house No. 2 had been allotted to the principal. The statement clarified that neither the local administration had approached the concerned judicial officer regarding the matter nor cancellation order of the said bungalow had been issued by the administration, therefore the judicial officer was legally occupying the said house.

Pakistan People’s Party MPA Noor Sahar raised the issue regarding illegal occupation of residential quarter in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday. She said that four judicial officers had occupied official house of the principal of government girls’ high school No. 1, Saidu Sharif.

Elaborating further, the spokesperson said that the local administration had failed to provide official accommodation to the anti-terrorism judge/administrative judge of Malakand.