PHC concerned at legal vacuum in tribal district

PESHAWAR: Expressing concern over the creation of legal vacuum and delay of replacing the legal system in tribal districts after the merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister to replace forthwith the system through amendments from the provincial assembly.

The court directed the provincial government to submit a progress report on the replacement of the legal system in the tribal districts before December 20, the next hearing into the case.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan passed the directions to the chief executive of the province in a writ petition.

The petition had sought an order of the court in the civil dispute, pending before the Fata Tribunal, which has become dysfunctional after the merger of the tribal districts.

On the court’s direction, both secretary Law and Parliamentary Affairs and secretary Home and Tribal Affairs along with advocate general appeared before the court.

The court had also summoned chief secretary in the case. However, the court was informed that he had gone to Islamabad to attend a meeting.

The bench asked the secretaries as to how the legal vacuum created after the merger of tribal districts would be filled as the Fata Tribunal had become dysfunctional, where hundreds of cases were still pending and the fate of the cases is undecided.

The secretaries informed the bench that the provincial government was going to get a bill passed from the KP Assembly to replace the system in tribal districts. They told the court that the work for replacing the system was going fast and the government would soon table the draft-bill in the assembly.

During the hearing, Advocate General Abdul Latif Yousafzai informed the bench that another bench of the high court headed by PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth had also passed a judgment in which Fata Interim Regulations had been declared as void and one month time had been given to the provincial government to establish regular courts, which is not possible at present circumstances in such a short time period.

He said the government had challenged it in the Supreme Court as the court declared that decisions of commissioners would be considered illegal after one month.

Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan observed that it was the right of the provincial government to challenge the order of the high court in the Supreme Court, but unfortunately, the federal government was not taking interest in replacement of system after the merger, which is highly important from the Kartarpur corridor as hundreds of tribal people are deprived of justice delay in establishing the regular justice system in the tribal districts.

Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan observed that the chief minister and governor of the province should spare time for resolving the issues of the tribal people after the merger as they were facing lots of problems.

The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by Talamkhel through Haji Jandul Khan against the decision of commissioner in a case about the coal mines in the tribal district.