ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the federal government to pay the remaining compensation amount to families of the Quetta Church blast victims.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Umar Atta Bandial and Justice Ijazul Ahsan took up the suo moto case and directed the government to pay the compensation amount to the families of those killed and injured in the Quetta church blast.
On May 5, Chief Justice Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken the suo moto notice of the case on an application of Samuel Payra, Chairman Implementation of Minorities Rights (IMR).
At least nine members of the Christian community were killed and 57 others injured when two suicide bombers detonated their suicide vests at a church in Quetta on December 11, 2017, while the worshippers were attending service ahead of Christmas.
During the hearing, Samuel Payra, informed the court that the federal government had announced Rs1 million each for the slain and Rs0.5 million each for the seriously injured and Rs0.3 million each for injured persons. He said that the federal government has so far provided Rs7.2 million less that the announced sum for the blast victims.
He said that besides the federal government, the Balochistan government had also promised to provide funds for the families of the victims and the maintenance of the church, but the funds were yet to be released.
Justice Ijaz asked from the Quetta Deputy Commissioner why he took so long in paying the compensation to the heirs of the victims. The DC said that they received the medico-legal report (MLR) about the victims very late.
Justice Ijaz inquired why the MLR was prepared so late. Later, the court directed the DC to submit reasons about the delayed MLR and affidavits regarding the payment of the compensation to the aggrieved families.
The bench deferred the hearing till the first week of June.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday issued stay orders against the capital punishment of Bacha Khan University attack’s mastermind Akbar Ali and admitted his appeal for regular hearing in this regard.
A three-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Munib Akhtar conducted hearing of the petition moved by Akbar Ali and summoned the complete record of the case from the military trial court.
Later, the bench deferred the hearing for indefinite period in his petition.
Earlier, a military court had awarded death sentence to Akbar Ali. Then, the Peshawar High Court had also upheld the sentence.
It was January 20 when terrorists armed with heavy ammunition and bombs targeted Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and at least 20 people were killed and dozens others sustained injuries.
The First Information Report (FIR) of the attack was lodged on behalf of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) by Station House Officer Irfanullah of the Serdheri police station in CTD Mardan under sections 7 and 15AA of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Five facilitators of the Charsadda attack were arrested on January 23, 2016, out of which four were presented in front of the media. The then Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt Gen Asim Salim Bajwa in a press conference had stated that Taliban commander Umer Mansoor and his deputy Zakir were the main culprits behind the attack.
He had stated the attackers carried mobile phones with Afghan numbers and “were in touch with their handlers in Afghanistan”. During the initial investigations by CTD, four grenades, 16 magazines and 240 cartridges were recovered from the site of the attack.
