PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday said that there are no ‘holy cows in Pakistan and assured action against all those responsible for the Army Public School (APS) tragedy.
The court directed to submit the progress report with the signature of the Prime Minister within four weeks.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the APS massacre case. Prime Minister appeared before the Supreme Court on the court order. The Supreme Court chief justice said that the government should listen to the grievances of the APS tragedy martyrs and take action against all those responsible for negligence and submit a report within four weeks.
Read more: Supreme Court summons PM in APS massacre case
On this, the Attorney General said that it was easy to register a case against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the then interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. The Attorney General requested more time on which the court granted four weeks.
During the hearing, the court asked the PM to explain what action has been taken to bring the perpetrators of the APS tragedy to justice? On which the Prime Minister said that it was very painful tragedy. “On the night of the tragedy, we called a meeting of our party. In 2014, the PTI had government in KP and we called the party meeting on that night,” the PM said. Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan remarked that the APS victim parents wanted action against the high officials, including the then chief minister. Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that constitution guarantees security and protection of every citizen.
In response, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the former military dictator Pervez Musharraf had opposed the US war on Pakistan due to which we have sacrificed 80,000 lives. He said that after the tragedy a National Action Plan was formulated to root out terrorism from the country. He assured that there is no holy cows in Pakistan and strict action will be taken against all those responsible officials.
Justice Gulzar asked the PM, now that you are in power, what steps are you taking to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice? Justice Qazi Amin said that according to media reports, you are negotiating with these people? On this the Prime Minister said that I believe in the rule of law, no one in the country is above the law.
Earlier when the hearing begun the bench remarked that the APS incident “was a security failure” and the terrorists had inside support. The chief justice questioned the efficiency of Pakistan intelligence agencies in protecting the lives of the people.