The federal government on Thursday informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that the First Information Report (FIR) registered against former station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and his legal advisor has been cancelled. Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon, standing counsel of the federal government, informed the IHC that after cancellation of the FIR against former CIA station Chief Jonathan Banks and his legal advisor John A. Rizzo, the matter has been referred to the secretary FATA secretariat by the Islamabad police.
Islamabad police in 2014 registered the FIR against CIA station chief Banks and his legal advisor Rizzo on the direction of IHC on a petition filed by Kareem Khan. Khan, a native of Mirali, North Waziristan was seeking to register an FIR against the then CIA station chief Banks for the death of his son and brother in a 2009 drone strike when Banks was the CIA's Islamabad station chief. No FIR has been registered against the American officials so far.
Explaining reason for referring this matter to secretary FATA, barrister Jadoon said that since the strike took place in FATA therefore Islamabad police technically cannot investigate the matter. He said that the investigation involved exhumation and post-mortem of dead bodies and recording of statements of witnesses including the local residents of FATA needs the presence of the investigation officer in that area. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui observed that the government was not acting as per law due to the involvement of US spy agency.
Barrister Jadoon said that all the related records and a copy of the FIR has been forwarded to FATA secretariat adding that the authorities concerned have also been directed to take action according to the law. The court offered Khan's counsel, Mirza Shahzad Akbar, to study the record of the federal government forwarded to FATA secretariat. The counsel however sought time to submit a written reply in the matter after going through the record. The court adjourned the hearing of the case to next week.