PHC stops DRCs from working till next order

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday stopped dispute resolution councils (DRCs) from working across the province till the next order of the court.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Daud Khan suspended the operations of DRCs in the province till June 2, the next date for hearing of the case. The court also asked the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General (AG) Abdul Latif Yousafzai to explain if these DRCs were not parallel courts. The court also asked the advocate general to explain the legal position of DRCs.
The chief justice questioned under what law the government had established DRCs at the police stations and made parallel courts for deciding cases. In January 2014, the police authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa set up the first DRC at the Gulbahar Police Station in Peshawar in an effort to modernise the Pakhtun Jirga and provide it support from the police station concerned.
Presently, there are over 50 DRCs all over Khyber Pakhtun-khwa, with at least one body at the tehsil or sub-division level.The advocate general appeared in the court and informed the bench that the DRC at the West Cantonment Police Station had withdrawn the complaint against the petitioner Qaiser Khan, with the observations that a huge amount of money was involved in the dispute.
He said that now the petition had become infractuous and if the court proceeded with the case, then it would become a suo motu action for which the high court had no jurisdiction. The court asked the advocate general to submit record and documents in the court and under what law the DRCs were deciding cases.
The advocate general submitted that if the DRCs were having statutory backing, then the high court would proceed with the case accordingly and could stop them from working if they lacked the legal status.
The court took notice of the issue in a writ petition by Qaiser Khan, a resident of Hayatabad. He had challenged the establishment of the DRCs and also the proceedings initiated against him on a complaint in the DRC located at the West Cantonment Police Station.
The PHC chief justice observed that the court had also taken notice of the DRCs in February 2015 after knowing about it through the media. The chief justice said the court had through the registrar of the high court sought replies, asking the officials concerned to explain the legal position of the DRCs and the authority under which the cases were being decided at the police stations, but no reply was submitted to the court in this regard.The petitioner’s lawyer Imtiaz Ali, informed the bench that the DRC had withdrawn complaint against the petitioner.