PHC orders to build ‘proper monument’ for APS martyrs

PESHAWAR: Expressing displeasure over current monument for Army Public School (APS) martyrs, the Peshawar High Court has ordered the provincial government to hire services of a good architect and prepare design for the monument acceptable to the parents of the martyrs.

The order was issued by a two-member bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Muhammad Nasir Mehfooz, while hearing a case filed by Fazal Khan who had challenged and declared the structure built in the memory of Army Public School (APS) students as unsuitable for representing the sacrifices of children.

The court directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to remove the ‘fibreglass monument’ recently constructed in the memory of the Army Public School (APS) attack victims and design a reasonable structure that represents the emotions of victim families.

The petitioner is the father of Sahibzada Umer Khan, one of the students who, along with dozens of others, was martyred in a terrorist attack on the school on the morning of December 16, 2014.

“This is regrettable. You just placed a fibreglass sculpture to represent the sacrifice of the APS students,” Justice Qaiser remarked while hearing the case.

The Higher Education Department secretary submitted before the bench that he had assumed charge after construction of the monument. However, he said, the court order on construction of the monument would be complied with.