Doctors’ kidnappings: Hayatabad and Tatara SHOs issued notices

Judge Shaiber Khan investigates rise in cases of abduction of doctors in the province.

PESHAWAR:

District and sessions judge Shaiber Khan has issued notices to SHOs of Hayatabad and Tatara police stations, asking them to provide records of incidents of doctors’ kidnappings from their jurisdictions. 

The judge, who has been looking into the growing number kidnapping of doctors from various hospitals of the province, also ordered the SHOs to produce the status of the investigation they had conducted so far. On February 15, Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk appointed Shaiber as the enquiry officer to investigate the increasing kidnapping cases. The request was sent by the provincial government after the medical community put pressure on it to investigate the matter.

On January 29, Chief Minister Parvez Khattak ordered a judicial inquiry on the kidnappings during a meeting with doctors after they had held a daylong sit-in and protested over the rising number of doctors’ abductions.

PHC hearings today

PHC has constituted a five-judge bench to hear pending cases related to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) today (Tuesday).

The larger bench will be headed by the chief justice and include Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan.

The larger bench was ordered by a division bench of Justice Irshad Qaiser and Justice Roohul Amin a few days ago. Former chief justice Dost Muhammad Khan had suggested to constitute a larger bench for cases related to the tribal areas.

Some of the cases related to Fata include the petitioners’ demand to abolish the centuries-old Frontier Crimes Regulation which they consider against basic human rights and opposition to the appointment of a governor from Fata as they claim he should be from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

One of the petitioners has also challenged the appointment of members of the FATA Tribunal on the basis that they are not familiar with laws of the tribal areas. Residents of the tribal areas also want to extend the jurisdiction of high courts to Fata.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2014.