Show-cause notice: Foreign secretary to answer to PHC over drone strikes

FHR petition claims centre not stopping drones is contravention of earlier court order.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday issued a show-cause notice to the secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain within 20 days as to why the PHC order to stop drone strikes was not complied with.

The show-cause notice was issued by Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Nisar Hussain Khan while hearing a contempt of court petition filed by the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR).  The FHR helps provide legal aid to enforce fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of Pakistan.

FHR co-founder Barrister Mirza Shehzad Akbar informed the bench that the PHC had passed an order on May 9, declaring the drone strikes a ‘war crime’ and had ordered the federal government to raise the issue at the UN in case the strikes were not stopped.

Since the government informed the Senate that a resolution against drone strikes has been submitted at the UN, the outcome of the resolution should be awaited, said the two-member bench.

Barrister Akbar, however, responded that Adviser to Prime Minister (PM) on Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz had claimed a few months back that the US would stop drone strikes during peace talks but they still continue.

After hearing preliminary arguments, the bench admitted the contempt petition but ordered PM Nawaz Sharif’s name be removed as the federal government is already a party in the case.

“The non-implementation of the said orders of this court has resulted in further drone strikes and killings of innocent civilians. A recent example was a strike on a Madrassah in Hangu in a settled area in the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa,” read the petition.

Talking to the media after the hearing, Akbar claimed no resolution to implement the PHC order has been moved at the UN.

A two-member PHC division bench on May 9 had passed the order against the strikes. “A proper warning [should] be administered in this regard and if that does not work, the government of Pakistan and state institutions, particularly the security forces, shall be under constitutional and legal obligations to shoot down drones attacking Pakistani territories or when they enter the airspace of Pakistan’s sovereign territory,” read the judgment.

It further stated Pakistan is directed to take the matter before the UN Security Council, and if that does not work, an urgent meeting of the UN General Assembly be requisitioned to resolve this issue in an effective manner.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2013.