PHC wants TTP spokesman not released sans court order

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has declared that former Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan should not be released without securing court order.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ijaz Anwar stopped the government from releasing the former TTP spokesman. It directed the government to inform the court after completing investigation into the cases against him.

The court issued the directives in a writ petition filed by Fazal Khan, who is a practicing lawyer and father of Sahibzada Umar Khan, the martyred grade-8 student of the Army Public School & College (Boys), Peshawar. He is seeking court order to restrain the government from granting clemency to Ehsanullah Ehsan, former spokesman of the outlawed TTP and Jamaatul Ahrar, and instead try him in a military court.

To the court's query, Deputy Attorney General, Musarratullah who was representing the federal government through the Ministry of Defence, submitted that the ministry had presented second comments in the case. However, the the petitioner's lawyer claimed it was the reply already submitted in the case.

The ministry did not reply to the court's query in the comments whether the government was going to grant clemency to Ehsan and under what law his investigation has continued to-date after his surrender.

In reply, the Ministry of Defence submitted that investigation and operations based on Ehsan's revelations were under process. It said disposal of his case would be done after considering his involvement in different acts of violence in accordance with the law.

The Ministry of Defence sought dismissal of the case being without merit and premature. Barrister Ameerullah Khan Chamkani submitted before the bench that the ministry had given a one line reply and one can assume that the government had kept the former TTP spokesman as its guest and would soon grant him clemency.

He stated the government did not mention in the reply that clemency was not being granted to him. He added that under Army Act, the trial of such a dangerous militant would not take time.

He argued that Ehsan had accepted responsibility for the terrorists attack on Army Public School and this amounted to confession under the terrorism act. The petitioner has made Government of Pakistan through secretary Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence through secretary Defence, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through chief secretary, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), chief of army staff and Ministry of Law, Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs through its secretary as respondents in the petition.

The petitioner claimed that he had been informed by reliable sources that clemency was likely for Ehsan for his "full and frank disclosure" and said this is not only highly deplorable but also illegal and unconstitutional.

In the four-page writ petition, he submitted that he has been making hectic efforts to see that the culprits behind one of the darkest days in the history of the province were met with justice so that the children of other parents do not go through the unimaginable ordeal suffered by the petitioner and his family and numerous other parents in the tragic incident.

The petitioner said, "It is pertinent to note that on the very next date of the incident, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan through Ehsan victoriously claimed responsibility for the brutal incident and vowed, through media and other channels of communication to carry out more attacks in future."

It was submitted that after a long period of almost three years, the principal accused and mastermind of the APS tragedy Ehsan alias Tariq had surrendered or had been captured by the law-enforcing agencies, giving some hope to the petitioner that the perpetrator of the APS incident would be brought to justice.

"Unfortunately, to the utmost surprise and disappointment of the petitioner Ehsanullah Ehsan far from being brought to the aisles of justice is being portrayed as an unaware, innocent and brainwashed man who had inadvertently masterminded the slaughter in the APS and many other terrorist activities in the country in general and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in particular," the petitioner said.