Senator Farhatullah Babar had moved a bill in the Senate for extending the jurisdiction of the Peshawar High Court and the Supreme Court to the tribal areas for protection of fundamental rights.
In March 2015, the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice had unanimously approved a constitutional amendment bill moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar seeking to extend the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the High Court to tribal areas to protect the fundamental rights of its people.
The bill seeks to delete clause 7 of Article 247 of the Constitution which bars the superior courts from enforcing fundamental rights of the people of tribal areas.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly had also passed a resolution demanding representation of the people of Fata in the provincial assembly and extension of superior courts’ jurisdiction to the tribal areas.
Former provincial minister for law, parliamentary affairs and human rights Arshad Abdullah had moved the resolution, asking the government to abolish the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) tribunal and establish a proper judicial forum.
The resolution demanded deletion of clause (7) of Article 247 of the Constitution for being in violation of fundamental rights of tribal people. It also called for extension of the jurisdiction of the higher courts to Fata.
FLF secretary general Taj Mahal Afridi said though constitutionally the parliamentarians from Fata were barred from legislating for Fata, they would move the resolution with help from other parliamentarians to amend Article 247 of the Constitution to facilitate extension of the jurisdiction of the superior courts to the tribal areas.
He said the extension of the courts’ jurisdiction would restrain the political administration from violating the fundamental rights of the tribal people under the FCR.The FLF has forwarded the draft of the resolution to Fata parliamentarians for its passage from both the Houses of the parliament. It states: “Article 1 of the Constitution has defined the territories of Pakistan, which includes Fata. Despite being an integral part of Pakistan, more than 10 million inhabitants don’t enjoy the protection of their fundamental rights as guaranteed by the Constitution.”