Chief Justice of Pakistan, Saqib Nisar on Wednesday ordered constitution of a judicial commission to probe carnage in Army Public School Peshawar on December 16, 2014 where over 100 students were killed by terrorists. The Chief Justice while hearing APS case during Supreme Court Peshawar Registry here ordered that the judicial commission would submit report within two months.
The judicial commission was a longstanding demand of the bereaved families who had filed a case for constitution of a judicial commission into APS tragedy and making the inquiry report public. On 16 December 2014, six gunmen of Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) attacked the Army Public School (APS) Peshawar. The militants entered the school and opened fire on school staff and children killing 149 people including 132 school children, ranging between eight and eighteen years of age making it the world's forth deadliest school massacre.
A rescue operation was launched by the Pakistan Army's Special Services Group (SSG) Special Forces, who killed all six terrorists and rescued 960 people.
Pakistan responded to the attacks by lifting its moratorium on the death penalty, intensifying the War in North-West Pakistan and authorizing military courts to try civilians through a constitutional amendment.
On 2 December 2015, Pakistan hanged four militants involved in the Peshawar massacre, whereas the mastermind of the attack, Omar Khorasani was killed in a drone strike in eastern Afghanistan on October 18, 2017. The Supreme Court of Pakistan upheld the death sentences of two more convicts involved in the attack.
The Chief Justice also visited Central Jail Peshawar and expressed displeasure over the deplorable condition and poor facilities for patients at the main prison.
The Chief Justice visited various sections of the Central Jail and expressed anguish over the prison's pathetic condition and inquired from prisoners about facilities being offered to them in the central jail.
The CJP summoned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak after taking serious note of poor facilities for prisoners at central prison. The Chief Justice also visited Psychiatric Hospital in Peshawar in central prison and expressed anguish at the state of the facility.
The Inspector General (IG) Prisons Department KP told CJP that they will start shifting the prisoners to the new jail from next month and hence, the problem of overcrowding would be significantly addressed.
The IGP Prisons made this statement after Chief Justice expressed displeasure at the overcrowding of prisoners in the central prison. During his visit, KP Health Secretary Abid Majeed told CJP that the Psychiatric Hospital in the prison is under construction since 2012 and work on the hospital could not be completed yet due to lack of funds. The CJP inquired hospital administration if patients spent their days lying on beds or there were any arrangements for them to pass their time outside in a relatively congenial atmosphere.
He asked where patients are made to sit when they leave their rooms. To this, the hospital administration said benches and chairs are arranged for patients when they come out of their wards for staying. On April 20, 2018, the Chief Justice had visited Peshawar and ordered action against unregistered clinics and quacks across in a weak time in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The CJP also expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of PTI government in the social sector including health, education and provision of potable water and regretted that not a single standard hospital or school had been set up in the provincial capital by the KP government over the past five years. The CJP had also inaugurated state of the art, Judicial Complex in Charsadda on April 21, 2018.