PESHAWAR: Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation has petitioned the Peshawar High Court against the formation of a special committee of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly by its speaker for probing the ransacking and torching of the Radio Pakistan building in Peshawar during a protest following the arrest of former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan in May 2023.
In the petition filed through its Peshawar station director, Tufail Ahmad, the PBC 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 the final disposal of the petition.
The petitioner, whose counsel is Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, named the provincial assembly speaker and the provincial government through additional chief secretary of the home and tribal affairs department as respondents.
Insists PA speaker ‘took over’ judiciary’s domain through notification
Currently, an anti-terrorism court is conducting the 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.
The accused facing trial include provincial minister Meena Khan Afridi, MNA Asif Khan, MPAs Fazal Ilahi Khan and Arbab Waseem, who left PTI and joined PTI-Parliamentarian, and former MPAs Arbab Jehandad, Fida Gul and Wajid Khan.
Last month, the ATC accepted a plea of the PBC and ordered forensic examination of the relevant videos and facial recognition of the accused persons in the case through National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra).
The court had ordered the handover of a USB stick, containing video records, in sealed condition to the investigation officer to ascertain its genuineness vis-a-vis identification of offenders through Nadra records and submit a report before the next hearing on Jan 10, 2026.
In a sitting on Dec 16, 2025, the KP Assembly passed a motion for constituting a special committee for probing the occurrence. The speaker later issued the impugned notification of the 15-member special committee having provincial law minister Aftab Alam as its chairperson.
The ToRs of the committee include the probing and determining the actual incident occurred in Radio Pakistan, Peshawar and 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”.
The PBC said that it had headquarters in Islamabad and various units throughout the country, including Radio Pakistan station in Peshawar, the oldest such centre in the country.
It added that on May 10, 2023, the Peshawar building was attacked, ransacked and burned down by “politically charged and motivated” persons, while the FIR of the incident was registered at the cantonment police station.
The PBC 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.
It added that it had been actively pursuing its case against the accused though the provincial government, through its resources, was trying its best to damage the interests of the state-owned organisation.
The petitioner said that the assembly’s speaker had issued the impugned notification, “upsetting and taking over” the domain reserved for the judiciary as the cases pertaining to different incidents, including the 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.
It contended that the speaker’s move meant for looking into the incident having penal ramifications was unconstitutional and uncalled-for.
Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2026