PESHAWAR, July 2: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday summoned parliamentarians from North and South Waziristan agencies for help in the safe recovery of eight Gomal Zam Dam Project employees kidnapped by militants over 10 months ago.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Qaiser Rasheed made it clear to the president and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor yet again that under the Constitution, it was their responsibility to ensure safe return of the kidnapped employees.

The bench fixed the next hearing for July 17 expressing the hope that parliamentarians from the two tribal agencies, including three MNAs and a senator, might be of any help in tracing the kidnapped persons. It observed that with their support, a doable policy would be made so that the safe recovery of the employees could be made possible.

During the previous hearing, the court was informed last month by the deputy attorney general that negotiations with militants for the release of employees had hit snags after the May 29, 2013 US drone strike, which killed deputy chief of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan Waliur Rehman.

When the bench began hearing on Tuesday, deputy attorney general Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand said in accordance with an earlier order of the court, he had submitted in sealed envelope the minutes of a high-level meeting held in the Governor’s House recently on the issue.

He said the security situation in the tribal areas was precarious as foreign agencies had been operating there, including RAW and Mossad.

The chief justice asked him when foreign agencies had been operating there, then what the Pakistani intelligence agencies had been doing and why they had not been tracing foreign agents. Mr Mohmand replied that intelligence agencies had been doing their level best to expose the networks of foreign agents.

Chief security officer of Wapda Colonel (r) Mateen and lawyer Fida Gul said if kidnappers demanded ransom for release of the kidnapped persons, then Wapda was willing to pay 50 per cent of it.

The bench observed how the authorities would inaugurate the Gomal Zam Dam when the employees, who had worked hard for its construction, could not be traced by them.

Assistant political officer of South Waziristan Hamidullah Khan said the new political agent of the agency had assumed charge on June 11 following which he had constituted a tribal jirga for holding talks with the captors of the said employees.

APO of North Waziristan Agency Zaheeruddin Babur said the major problem the administration had been facing was that even the jirga members were not clear about the identity of the captors.

He said the security situation was also not good in the area.The relatives of the kidnapped employees had sent an application to the chief justice a few weeks ago that was converted into a writ petition. The workers were on their way to Tank district from the dam site in South Waziristan on Aug 15 when they were taken away by kidnappers who later turned out to be militants.