It must have bene a very humbling experience for Prime Minister Imran Khan to go to the Supreme Court and get grilled over the government’s “inaction” against those responsible for the Army Public School (APS) attack in 2014, which killed 132 innocent children, as well as ongoing talks with TTP, the banned militant outfit that took responsibility for it. Given how the government has been dragging its feet over the matter of addressing the concerns of the parents of the martyred children, especially investigation and legal proceedings against the civil and military security leadership of the country at the time, the court was left with no option but to summon the prime minister himself to do some explaining. And the PM duly obliged, which was good for optics even if it remains to be seen if anything concrete will come out of that particular hearing. The court also didn’t seem very convinced with the logic of holding negotiations with the said terrorists when the country boasts the world’s sixth largest army and arguably the best intelligence service. What is more, the parents of the APS victims seem dead against such talks and prefer state action, preferably of the lethal variety, against them. Yet the PTI government insists that its unilateral policy of suddenly talking to the terrorists that killed more than 80,000 Pakistanis is the right thing to do. There’s also a great deal of confusion about which bad guys the state is going to talk to and exactly how it is going to differentiate between soft and hard terrorists. Also, how is it going to make sure that anybody who promises to lay down arms and respect the constitution, after disrespecting it for so long, is not just taking the state for a ride and buying time till they can arrange more funding and more bombs and bullets? The court’s observation, that any such step must only be taken after taking the parents of the APS victims on board, is also very apt and must be followed in letter and spirit. PM Imran Khan has set a very noble precedent indeed, even if his engagements kept the highest court of the land waiting for more than two hours. But now he must take the more crucial step of ensuring justice, transparency and foreplay in what is after all a very important matter of the state. *