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Friday March 29, 2024

Fata Tribunal becomes dysfunctional

Terms of chairman, two members expire

By Akhtar Amin
February 06, 2015
PESHAWAR: The Fata Tribunal has become non-functional as the federal government didn’t extend the contract of its chairman and two members.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz-led federal government this time hasn’t extended the services of the tribunal’s chairman Shah Wali Khan and its members Akbar Khan and Pir Fida. The tribunal cannot function till the appointment of its new chairman and members.
The contract of the members expired on January 26 and the tribunal has not heard the pending cases since then. The hearing of hundreds of appeals against the decisions of FCR commissioner has also stopped since January 26.
The registrar of the tribunal, however, has continued to receive the appeals against the decisions of FCR commissioner.
Fresh appointments to the tribunal are to be made by the Khyber Pakhtunkwha Governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan. The chairman and the members of the tribunal work for three years.
The Fata Lawyers Forum (FLF) had protested against the previous appointments for the tribunal.
It even staged a protest camp. Their major complaint was the appointment of a lawyer from the settled area instead as member of the Fata Tribunal.
Under Section 55 (a) of the FCR, a lawyer from Fata will be appointed as member of the tribunal and should be well conversant with the tribal Riwaj (customs) and traditions.
The FLF President, Muhammad Ijaz Mohmand told The News that this time their delegation had met the KP governor prior to the expiry of the tribunal’s members’ tenure and informed him about its viewpoint.
Under the appointment rules for the tribunal, the KP governor would recommend a retired grade-21 officer as chairman, grade-20 retired officer as member and a lawyer from Fata as member.
“We informed the governor about the status of the Fata Tribunal. He was requested to appoint sitting or retired sessions judges as chairman and member and a Fata lawyer also as member,” the FLF 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.