PHC petition seeks police cell for protection of ulema

PESHAWAR: A petition has been filed in the Peshawar High Court seeking the creation of a special Ulema Protection Cell at the Central Police Office to provide security to religious scholars considered vulnerable after the killing of cleric Maulana Mohammad Idrees.

The petition was moved on Wednesday by Noor Zaib, a resident of Peshawar, through lawyer Mohammad Hamdan. It asks the court to direct the provincial police officer to establish the proposed cell, carry out threat assessments and provide what the petitioner described as reasonable security to vulnerable scholars.

The petitioner also requested that the court order the government to extend the Shuhada Package to the legal heirs of religious scholars killed in terrorist incidents and provide a government job to one of their legal heirs.

The provincial government through the chief secretary, the provincial police officer, the additional inspector general of police for the Counter-Terrorism Department, and the home secretary have been named as respondents in the case.

Constitutional grounds cited in petition

According to the petition, the assassination of religious scholars, including Maulana Idrees, amounted to a violation of Article 20 of the Constitution concerning the freedom to profess religion, as well as Article 22, which protects religious educational institutions.

The petitioner stated that over the past several years, a number of religious scholars had been killed in targeted attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and elsewhere in the country. He said formal FIRs had been registered in such cases, but claimed that the conviction rate remained almost nil.

The petition further stated that the killing of Maulana Idrees in broad daylight in Charsadda took place within the territorial jurisdiction of the high court.

It argued that the constitutional right to life also includes the right to live peacefully and without fear. The petitioner maintained that it was the constitutional responsibility of the respondents to protect citizens from target killings.

Failure to protect vulnerable groups alleged

The petition contended that the respondents had failed to provide special protection to vulnerable segments of society, including ulema, and said this amounted to a violation of Article 9 of the Constitution, which guarantees protection of life.

It also maintained that the respondents were bound to act within the framework of the law and the Constitution to address the grievances of the public, who, according to the petitioner, had suffered mentally and physically because of continuing targeted killings.

The plea comes in the wake of the assassination of Maulana Mohammad Idrees, which the petitioner cited as the immediate context for seeking institutional protection measures for religious leaders.