Judge rules: Court seeks AG’s assistance over K-P’s governorship

Same bench adjourns a contempt of court hearing on drone strikes.

PESHAWAR: The Attorney General of Pakistan was issued a notice by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to assist in a case that challenged Shaukatullah Khan’s appointment as the governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The notice was issued by a division bench of Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan while hearing the case of Advocate Gohar Rehman Khattak, Shahid Orakzai and Advocate Wali Afridi regarding the appointment of the governor. Since the governor is represented by the attorney general, the court issued a notice for him to assist in the court proceedings.

Drone strikes

In another case, the same bench adjourned the contempt of court hearing proceedings regarding ongoing drone strikes despite an order from the court declaring them a war crime on May 9, 2013.



The case was filed by Miraz Shehzad Akbar of the Foundation for Fundamental Rights. The PHC had issued a notice to the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 19, 2013, asking him to file comments on whether the order of the court was complied with or not.

Contempt of court notice

Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan issued a contempt of court notice to the superintendent of central prison in Haripur, who despite having served a notice thrice, could not assist the court regarding the bail of an accused imprisoned there.

The single-member bench of Justice Khan was informed by petitioner Arab Ali’s counsel that his client was accused of injuring Hazrat Bilal within the jurisdiction of Shahbaz Garhi police station in Mardan. A total of six people were named in the case.



The counsel, Khwaja Muhammad Khan Gara, said the complainant was in prison for another case and despite the fact that three notices were issued, there was no response.

The bench heard the argument and issued a contempt of court notice to superintendent of Haripur Central Jail and released the accused on conditional bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2014.