PHC summons MPA in alleged torture case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed lawmakers of KhyberPakhtunkhwa Assembly to appear in court today for his alleged torture and creating hurdles in duty for a class-IV employee in Charsadda district.

A division bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Mussarat Hilali directed Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Khalid Khan Mohmand of Qaumi Watan Party and District Education Officer (Female) Sofia Tabassum to appear in court and explain their position in a writ petition against them by a class-IV employee.

The class-IV employee, Israj Khan, alleged that DEO (Female) Sofia Tabassum was supporting Khalid Khan and creating hurdles in his work as naib qasid (BPS-3) so as to leave his job. Saleem Shah Hoti represented the petitioner in the case.

About the facts of the case, the counsel for the petitioner alleged the MPA had asked the petitioner to take his sister, Hina, a ninth grader, out of the school and send her to his mother-in-law’s house in Peshawar to serve as maid.

The MPA, he alleged, also asked the petitioner's mother to work at his house. He argued that when the petitioner's sister refused to leave the school, it infuriated the MPA, who threatened him with dire consequences. As the first step, he alleged, the petitioner's family was ousted from the house built on the school's premises.

He alleged the MPA along with his cousin Majid and gunman constable Ali Akbar beat him up on October 29 and forcibly obtained impression of his thumb on a blank paper after his refusal to tender resignation from the government service.

The lawyer argued that as per the claim of the petitioner, the MPA had thrashed him and was not allowing him to perform duty in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Ziam, Tangi tehsil.

The petitioner, he said, then approached the DEO but she declined to entertain his complaint. In the petition, the petitioner said later he filed an application with the Charsadda deputy commissioner, who formally asked the DEO to ensure the resolution of the issue but the DEO didn't take action on the directives as she had connived with the MPA.

He said the MPA later allegedly stopped him from entering the school claiming it was built on his property. The petitioner added that he again approached the deputy commissioner, who asked the DEO on November 15 to transfer him to some other school but she didn't comply with the order. He said, he later got a leave application approved by the school principal but it was cancelled allegedly by the DEO at the behest of the MPA. The petitioner said the acts of the MPA and DEO to create hurdles to his service were illegal.

He prayed the court to stop respondents, including lawmaker, DEO, government, Charsadda deputy commissioner and school principal, from taking any 'adverse and illegal' action against him.