PESHAWAR: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday transferred a writ petition to the PHC Chief Justice for hearing after the petitioner questioned the registration of the first information report (FIR) about the killings in the Army Public School and College. A two-member bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani transferred the case to the PHC chief justice for hearing after the petitioner, Shahid Orakzai, requested the formation of a larger five-member bench to hear the case. Freelance journalist Shahid Orakzai had filed the writ petition in the high court in which he questioned the registration of the FIR in the massacre of the Army Public School and College.The petitioner stated that it was an important case because the country’s Constitution was changed and military courts were established after the APS attack. The petitioner raised questions during the hearing. He asked the court whether a police officer in-charge of a police station can register a single report about 141murders. And whether an FIR regarding 141 murders could be based on the information collected by a single police officer or his sub-ordinates? About the facts of the case, the petitioner submitted that on December 16, 2014 Sher Ali Khan, the station house officer of Michni Gate Police Station, registered a single FIR about the killing of 141 innocent children, their teachers and other employees. The petitioner said the FIR registered under section 154 of CrPC is the only legal base for the obligatory investigation to be conducted under section 156 of CrPC.“The question arises how a single sketchy report could provide the substance for investigating so many murders,” he asked. He stated that the FIR in the APS massacre is mere eyewash. “The respondent SHO, in fact, does not intend to investigate even a single murder and apparently takes all the murders as fate accompli,” he argued. Shahid Orakzai contended that a single police station in Peshawar may not have the capacity to investigate so many murders, but the District and Sessions Judge, Peshawar can, under the law, divide the investigation between the police officers in his jurisdiction. The petitioner also quoted the holy “Quran” which has laid down the procedure for prosecution of murder. “Every murder shall be prosecuted as a single crime/offense. Prosecution shall be the collective duty of Muslims and the ‘Wali’ of the deceased shall have the command of the prosecution,” he quoted from the holy Quran. He submitted that every father whose child was murdered was duty bound by the Quran and the Constitution to prosecute the killer of his child instead of leaving the matter to the SHO Sher Ali Khan.
