APS tragedy: Govt seeks time to file progress report with PM’s signatures

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Thursday sought some three-week time for submitting a progress report with the prime minister signatures on the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar terrorist attack case.

In that attack, about 150 people including 132 schoolchildren were killed in 2014. On Nov 10, a three-member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsen and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, while hearing a suo moto case regarding APS Peshawar terrorist attack, had directed the government to submit a progress report with the signatures of the PM, and adjourned further hearing for four weeks. The court had summoned on short notice Prime Minister Imran Khan, who, later on, had appeared before the court.

On Thursday, Additional Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti filed a civil miscellaneous application (CMA) in the matter, and sought some three weeks time for submitting the progress report with the signature of the PM.

The government submitted that as the APS attack anniversary was being held on Dec 16, the PM had constituted a committee for meeting the parents of the martyred children. “It would be appropriate to wait for the conclusion of the committee’s meeting with the parents,” the federal government submitted in the application.

The court was informed that on the PM’s directions, a committee comprising Shireen Mazari, Umer Ayub, Fahmida Mirza and Sahibzada Mahboob Sultan had been constituted. The court was informed that attorney general, additional secretary defence and interior will also join the committee on the special invitation as well.