PHC puts president on notice in petition seeking provincial status for Fata

PESHAWAR: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday put on notice President of Pakistan through principal secretary to submit reply in a petition seeking separate province status for Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) instead of merger with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Muhammad Ghazanfar Khan and Justice Muhammad Ayub also put on notice secretary Safron and Additional Chief Secretary Fata to submit reply before the next hearing.

The bench issued notice in the petition filed by regional President of Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party for Fata, Daulat Shah Afridi, a resident of Landikotal, Khyber Agency, through his lawyer Noor Alam Khan. The petitioner prayed the court to order the respondents to declare Fata as separate province by abstaining from integration with the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He further requested the court to direct the government for separate legislative system for Fata by amending the Constitution.

It was stated in the petition that Fata is consisted of seven semi-autonomous agencies or administrative units - Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur, Kurram, Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan and includes "Frontier Regions (FR)" that adjoin the districts including Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Tank and Dera Ismail Khan. It said that this tangled mass constituted an area of 27,200sq km and was inhabited by around 57 million people.

The petition said that after Pakistan emerged on the world map as an independent entity, the country was governed by the Government of India Act 1935, read with the Indian Independent Act of 1947.

As per the petition, the government constituted a committee for introducing reforms in Fata. The committee submitted its report and placed four basic options to either maintain status quo with regard to main elements of the present system in Fata but introduce judicial reforms and increase focus on development activities.

The second option stated to grant special status to Fata on the pattern of Gilgit-Baltistan Council. The third option was to create separate province for Fata comprising seven tribal agencies and forth option was to integrate Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with each agency becoming a separate district.

It said that the reforms committee recommended integration and merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with each agency becoming a separate district. However, it was claimed in the petition that the fundamental rights incorporated in the Constitution extended to the Fata and the people of Fata had the right of life under Article-9 of the Constitution, freedom of Assembly and Association under Article-16 & 17 of the Corruption but they are being deprived from their basic rights and the issue of their life and liberty, assembly and association is decided without hearing them.

It said that the Parliamentary Committee, while submitting its report, exceeded its authority and jurisdiction, hence, the report was illegal and without jurisdiction and lawful authority. It was added that that the people of Fata wanted to have own legislative system which could legislate for them according to local customs and riwaj of the people of Fata.

"With the establishment of separate province it shall be given NFC award, which cannot be given in the form of merger," it adding, "It was further claimed that after the merger with KP, the Fata would lose the membership of its eight senators, but in case of a separate province the people of Fata would not only have own provincial assembly, but also the number of senators and members in National Assembly would increase."