Pakistan govt barred from freeing TTP spokesman

PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): The government has been barred from giving clemency to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.

A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the government to wait until a final verdict was handed down on the militant’s fate.

A petition has been filed by Fazal Khan, father of a student who killed by TTP insurgents in a 2014 attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar.

The petitioner prayed the court to instruct respondents, including the federal government, not to free Ehsan, who is currently facing an inquiry.

If the TTP’s former spokesman had claimed responsibility for the 2014 APS attack, only parents of the victims were empowered to pardon him, the court said.

Ameerullah Khan Chamkani, lawyer for the petitioner, told the bench that Ehsan, who surrendered a year ago, was yet to go on trial. The TTP spokesman is tried by a military court, he prayed.

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