Before Prime Minister Imran Khan gets too happy about his readiness to appear before the Supreme Court, he should notice that the Bench summoning him, headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice Gulzar Ahmad, was dissatisfied enough with his answers to order that the federal government reply in two weeks on what steps it had taken to hold accountable those who were responsible for the 2014 Army Public School (APS) massacre. The Supreme Court appeared interested in how the government reconciled taking action against those responsible among the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan with holding negotiations with it and being ready to accept those of its members who were willing to abide by its Constitution. The Court was hearing a petition by parents of the victims of the APS massacre. The Court also made a number of observations about the intelligence agencies, which it noted had failed to provide any prior information that an attack was imminent.
The PTI’s relationship with the episode neeeds examining. The Prime Minister said that there was a meeting of the PTI core committee the evening of the massacre. Was that the occasion when it decided to end its famous sit-in, which had by then achieved its purposes, but was beginning to flounder. The Attorney General had said that a case could be registered against the then Prime Minister and the then Interior Minister. The petitioners also want a case registered against the then COAS, DG ISI, Corps Commander Peshawar, and CM KP. The purpose of the Court coincides with that of the parents. The Court wants to fulfill its function of ensuring the law is obeyed; the parents want closure, something which will only be achieved when justice is done.
The concerned officials are noe retired, and the politicians are still active, though with differing fortunes. The Court, however, can still ask them to appear before it, if the purposes of justice are thus served. The Court has traditionally followed the lead given to it by the military, as its removals of two PMs, and validation of all four martial laws, but it has also, as in the case of the COAS’ extension, tried to establish its own primary in the state.That motive cannot be excluded in the APS case, but if the Court keeps uppermost the need to deliver justice, it will not go wrong.
The post APS massacre appeared first on Pakistan Today.
from Pakistan Today https://ift.tt/3qolFG3
0 comments: