PESHAWAR, Nov 25: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami on Monday filed a contempt petition with the Peshawar High Court against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for not following the court`s orders for stopping the US drone strikes in the country.

Provincial president of JUI-S Maulana Yousaf Shah and provincial general secretary Ikramullah Shahid filed the petition praying the court to take action against the prime minister under Article 204 of the Constitution, saying he had been blatantly violating the court`s May 9, 2013 order against the US drone strikes.

The order was issued in a verdict given in four anti-drone petitions.

JUI-S chief Maulana Samiul Haq and lawyer Moazam Butt accompanied the petitioners.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Musarrat Hilali had declared the US drone strikes in Pakistan`s tribal areas war crime.

It had issued wide ranging directives to Pakistani government and security forces to ensure stoppage of such strikes besides taking up the matter at the UN Security Council and General Assembly.

The four petitions were filed by several leaders of Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC), Foundation for Fundamental Rights (FFR), a tribal notable Malik Noor Khan and advocate FM Sabir.Maulana Yousaf Shah, who was at that time convener of Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC), and Ikramullah Shahid, were also petitioners in the case filed by DPC.

The petitioners said the federal government had not filed any appeal against the judgment of the high court and that meant the said judgment had attained finality.

They said the court had issued several directives to the government but the latter had not followed any ofthem and had been acting as silent spectators when the drone strikes continued in the country.

The petitioners said due to the non-implementation of the court judgment, the US had extended the scope of the drone strikes by targeting a seminary in Hangu district, which was a settled district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Moazam Butt told Dawn that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and interior secretary were respondents inthe petition as they had not followed the orders issued by the court.

He said the high court had issued clear directives to the g o y ern m en t spelling out the steps to be taken, but so far no action was taken by the prime minister in this respect.

L a t e r , Maulana Samiul Haq told reporters here that the g o y ern m en t should withdraw all sorts of assistance to the US.

He said theentire nation believed that Pakistan had been fighting the US war and therefore, it should distance itself from that war but the government had turned a deaf ear to the demand.

In the detailed 22-page judgment, the high court had ruled, `The Government of Pakistan and its Security Forces shall ensure that in future such drone strikes are not conducted and carried out within the sovereign territory of Pakistan.

Proper warning be administered inthis regard and if that does not work, the Government of Pakistan and State Institutions particularly the Security Forces shall have the right being under constitutional & legal obligations to shutdown the drones, attacking Pakistani territories or when these enter the airspace of Pakistan Sovereign territory.

The bench had directed the government to take the matter seriously before the Security Council of the UN and in case it did not succeed there if veto power was unduly exercised by the US authorities, then an urgent meeting of the General Assembly be requisitioned through a written request to resolve this menace in an effective manner.

It had ruled that in case the US authorities did not comply with the UN Resolution, whether passed by the UN Security Council or by the General Assembly, the government of Pakistan should sever all ties with the US and as a mark of protest should deny all logistic and other facilities to the US within Pakistan.

The bench directed the government to file proper complaint with the UN secretary general giving complete details of the losses sustained by the Pakistani civilian citizens both to life and properties due to drone strikes, and request him to constitute an independent war crime tribunal for investigating the matter.