Prime Minister Imran Khan made an appearance before the Supreme Court on Wednesday regarding a suo moto notice of complaints put forth by the parents of Army Public School’s (APS) martyrs.
The court questioned the actions the government had taken against those responsible for the APS attack and asked about the current negotiations with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
The bench was headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice (CJ) Gulzar Ahmed, and also included Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed and Justice Ijazul Ahsan.
According to media reports, the Prime Minister was summoned at 10:00am, but he reached the court two hours late.
Reportedly, Justice Amin stated to the PM, “We have the sixth largest army in the world. We are not a small country.”
During the proceedings, Justice Amin put several questions to the PM regarding the talks with TTP. He asked the premier why the government was bringing the TTP back to the negotiating table instead of taking action against them.
CJ Gulzar also asked the premier what the government had done so far about this case.
The CJ questioned what the government had done considering that it was in power. “You brought those guilty to the negotiating table,” said the CJ.
Justice Ahsan emphasised the fact that the satisfaction of the parents of APS martyrs was necessary.
In response to one of the questions, Prime Minister Khan said, “We will abide by all the decisions and we believe in the supremacy of law.”
The bench has also asked the federal government to address the concerns of the parents of the children and that they should take all the actions against those who were responsible.
The court directed the authorities to submit their report within two weeks, but on the request of the attorney general, it granted additional time and adjourned the hearing for four weeks.
A total of 147 people, 132 of them children, were martyred in Peshawar’s Army Public School-Warsak massacre in 2014.
The government is currently in talks with the militant outfit and going through a ceasefire. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry announced on Monday that a ‘complete ceasefire’ had been reached with the banned outfit.
