Peshawar:
The Superior Provincial Court of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has accepted a request that seeks compensation for a group of people who were killed during an air attack on alleged hiding places of terrorists in the Khhyber district of KP in 2013.
According to the petition, Fighter Jets on January 31, 2013 bombarded the petitioner’s residence, Ghazi Jan, in the Kuki Khel area of the former Khyber agency.
The attack resulted in the death of five family members, including his mother, wife, son and two daughters. Jan and another person also suffered wounds, while four rooms from his house were completely destroyed.
After the incident, Madokhel Jirga submitted a request to the then assistant political agent of the Khyber agency who sent the same to the political agent for the award of compensation.
After an investigation, the political agent ordered a compensation for RS3 LACS per deceased. The petitioner said that RS1 LAC was paid to each injured, but said that no compensation for the destroyed house was granted.
Not being satisfied with the amount of compensation, the petitioner presented a writing request that the Superior Court of Peshawar (PHC) eliminated on April 19, 2022, since he directed the main secretary of KP to investigate the matter taking into account the previous trials approved in WP No.59-P/2016 and WP No.3562-P/2017.
As the matter could not decide as indicated by this court, the petitioner resorted to presenting the request for contempt. During the pendency of the request for contempt, the representatives of the respondents promised to comply with the orders of PHC. The contempt raffle was eliminated later.
Finally, the government argued that the facts of the petitioner’s case were different from WP No.59-P/2016 and WP No.3562-P/2017 and, therefore, had no right to receive compensation.
Feeling aggrieved, the petitioner presented the constitutional request, seeking appropriate relief.
After listening to the arguments of both parties, the Fazal Subhan Judge of the PHC allowed the petition, ordering the Ministries of Defense, Safron and the Finance Division to organize the payment of compensation to the petitioner at least at least at a rate of RS10.94,816 per death.
However, he ordered that the political authorities of RS3,00,000 per deceased be paid to the petitioner by the political authorities of the former Khyber agency to be deduced from the amount.
