By BR Web Desk

Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared before the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday in a case pertaining to the Army Public School (APS) attack.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed took up the case proceedings today. Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid is also present at the apex court.

Earlier, the CJP inquired whether the PM had read the court's order.

Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan replied that the court's orders were not relayed to the PM, adding that he will brief the premier himself. At this, the CJP had summoned the PM before the court.

Last month, the SC had directed the AGP to take steps for redressing the grievances of the APS's martyrs’ families. The families of the APS martyrs had expressed dissatisfaction over the measures taken by the provincial and the federal governments, saying that action was taken only against low-level officials, but no case was registered against the top officials.

They requested the bench “to order for the registration of an FIR against the then Army Chief General (retired) Raheel Sharif, DG ISI Lt-Gen (retired) Zaheerul Islam, Corps Commander, Peshawar, Lt-Gen (retired) Hadayatur Rehman, the then Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and the then Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak,” who they claimed are actually responsible for the tragic incident.

“If action is taken against them then such incident could be prevented in the future,” the heirs of the martyrs said.

On December 16, 2014, a total of 147 people, 132 of them children, were martyred when militants stormed the APS-Warsak School, in Peshawar.

This article first appeared in Business Recorder on Nov 10, 2021.