PHC orders medical facilities for convicted militant

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the federal government to provide proper medical facilities to a militant commander of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Swat, Mehmood Khan.

He has been serving life-term in High Security Prison Sahiwal since his conviction by a military court.

Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ijaz Anwar issued the direction to the federal government through deputy attorney general office.

The government was directed to get the convicted militant commander examined by a specialist doctor and provide him medical facilities in three days.

The bench issued the order in a writ petition filed by Fawad Ali Khan, son of the convict, through his lawyer Mian Tajamul Shah.

The petitioner claimed that his father had been suffering from multiple diseases, including kidney problem, and hence needed immediate treatment.

Mehmood Khan, a close aide to TTP chief Maulana Fazlullah, had carried Rs10 million head money.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had announced in September 2009 the arrest of Mehmood Khan and four other militants, including Muslim Khan, the then spokesman for the TTP, Swat.

The ISPR had on December 28, 2016, announced through a news release the conviction of Mehmood Khan by a military court. He was awarded rigorous imprisonment for 20 years.

“The convict was a member of proscribed organisation. He was involved in the kidnapping of a Chinese engineer for ransom,” the ISPR had claimed.

Mian Tajamul Shah, lawyer for the petitioner, said after conviction, Mehmood Khan had been detained at a high-security prison in Sahiwal.