president said.
He added that people of Fata would not expect justice from the tribunal until the retired or sitting judges were appointed as chairman and members rather retired bureaucrats.
The general secretary FLF, Taj Mahal Afridi said the government should empower the tribunal to use Article 199 of the Constitution to directly hear petitions.
He also demanded empowering the tribunal for use of contempt powers to take action if orders of the tribunal are violated.
On the other hand, the case of Dr Shakil Afridi also remained unheard. The tribunal did not hear his appeal against the decision of FCR commissioner for almost 11 months due to non-submission of the case record by the Khyber Agency’s political agent.
However, this time the case was adjourned to March 3 due to expiry of the contract of chairman and members of the Fata Tribunal.
Dr Shakil Afridi, a former agency surgeon of Khyber Agency, was taken into custody by an intelligence agency on charges of assisting the American CIA in tracking down Osama bin Laden by conducting a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad.
His appeal was not heard due to non-compliance of the Fata Tribunal’s orders by the political agent of the Khyber Agency as he failed to submit the record of the case to the tribunal.
Qamar Nadeem Afridi, counsel for Dr Shakil Afridi, told The News that first the case was adjourned 11 times due to non-compliance of the tribunal order by the political agent and this time due to non-functioning of the Fata Tribunal.
In March 2014 the FCR commissioner, which is the appellate forum under the
Regulation, upheld his conviction.
Dr Shakil Afridi preferred a review petition before the Fata Tribunal, the third and last judicial forum available under the FCR, but the case has been lingering on without any noteworthy progress.
On several occasions, the tribunal issued directives to the Khyber Agency political agent and the FCR commissioner to produce the relevant record, but in vain.
The representative of the political agent sought adjournments of the petition on flimsy grounds.