Islamabad-The Islamabad High Court yesterday accepted for early hearing an application where the court has been approached against the transfer of an FIR, registered against the former CIA station chief in Islamabad Jonathan Banks, from the federal capital to FATA over killings of people in a drone attack.
A single bench of IHC comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui conducted hearing of the petition and directed the registrar office to fix this matter in the first week of November.
Previously, the IHC single bench had accepted the plea of an additional attorney general and advocate general Islamabad who had sought time for assistance of the court in this matter.
It was April 7, 2015 when the same IHC bench had for the third time directed inspector general of Islamabad police to register an FIR against the former CIA station chief in Islamabad Jonathan Banks and former CIA legal counsel John A Rizzo.
Secretariat police station registered the FIR but later it was transferred to the FATA secretariat.
Petitioner Karim Khan in his application has asserted that Secretariat police station had no jurisdiction to transfer the case. He has prayed to the court to direct secretariat police to initiate its proceedings on the basis of FIR.
Prior to April 7, 2015, IHC bench on June 05, 2014 had directed police to register FIR against the former CIA officials for their alleged involvement in drone attacks in the matter of Karim Khan whose brother and a son had died in a drone strike.
Karim Khan who is a resident of North Waziristan Agency had lost his teenage son Zahinullah and a brother Asif Iqbal who was a primary school teacher in Mirali, in a drone strike on 31st December 2009.