Islamabad - The Islamabad High Court will today resume hearing in a petition moved by a person against transfer of an FIR registered against former CIA station chief in Islamabad Jonathan Banks for killing people in drone attacks.
A single bench of the IHC comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui will hear the petition wherein he had earlier directed IG Islamabad police and SHO Secretariat police station to appear in person before the court on the next date of hearing.
During the previous hearing, AG Mian Abdul Rauf appeared before the court and Mirza Shahzad Akbar represented the petitioner Karim Khan.
It was April 7, 2015 when the same IHC bench had thrice directed the IG Islamabad police to register an FIR against the former CIA station chief in Islamabad, Jonathan Banks, and former CIA legal counsel, John A Rizzo. The Secretariat police station eventually registered the FIR but later it was transferred to the FATA Secretariat.
The petitioner, in his application, asserted that the Secretariat police station had no jurisdiction to transfer the case. He prayed to the court to direct secretariat police to initiate its proceedings on the basis of the FIR.
Prior to April 7, 2015, the 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.
The petitioner, 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 and started his legal struggle seeking accountability and redress in 2010 and has been pursuing the case ever since.