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Thursday March 28, 2024

No regular courts in tribal districts: Contempt of court petition filed against KP governor, CM

By Akhtar Amin
December 04, 2018

PESHAWAR: A contempt of court petition was filed against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor and chief minister in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) for not complying with the court judgement to establish regular courts in the tribal districts within one month.

A Peshawar-based high court lawyer, Ali Azeem Afridi, filed the petition against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Justice (Retd) Abdul Shakoor Paracha, Secretary Ministry of Law and Justice for Federation of Pakistan, Muhammad Aslam, Ministry of States & Frontier Regions Division (SAFRON), Bashir Ahmed Memon, Director General Federal Investigation Agency, Naveed Kamran Baloch, Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Salahuddin Mehsud, Inspector General of Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Secretary Home and others.

The lawyer said the court had passed the judgement on October 30. He said the high court had declared the Fata Interim Governance Regulation 2018 as ultra vires of the Constitution. The interim regulation had allowed the commissioners to act as judges.

The lawyer said the court had given one month time to the government to establish regular courts in the tribal districts and had declared that any decision of civil or criminal nature would be void ab initio.

The petitioner submitted, “Public functionaries had to reinforce good governance, observe rules strictly and adhere to rule of law in public service.”

However, the non-implementation of the judgement on the part of respondents is a disservice to those believing in constitutionality and rule of law and amounts to thwarting administration of justice.

It was prayed in the contempt petition that the court may please proceed against respondents for committing contempt of court.The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through Advocate General had filed an appeal against the decision of the high court, seeking suspension of the order.

The provincial government claimed the government has started homework for establishing regular courts and the task could not be completed in one month. The government had requested the Supreme Court to suspend the high court’s order. However, the apex court did not pass any order in the appeal to date.