PHC concerned at legal vacuum in tribal district

PESHAWAR: Expressing concern over the creation of legal vacuum and delay of replacing the legal system in tribal districts after the merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister to replace forthwith the system through amendments from the provincial assembly.

The court directed the provincial government to submit a progress report on the replacement of the legal system in the tribal districts before December 20, the next hearing into the case. A two-member bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan passed the directions to the chief executive of the province in a writ petition.

The petition had sought an order of the court in the civil dispute, pending before the Fata Tribunal, which has become dysfunctional after the merger of the tribal districts. On the court's direction, both secretary Law and Parliamentary Affairs and secretary Home and Tribal Affairs along with advocate general appeared before the court.

The bench asked the secretaries as to how the legal vacuum created after the merger of tribal districts would be filled as the Fata Tribunal had become dysfunctional, where hundreds of cases were still pending and the fate of the cases is undecided.

The secretaries informed the bench that the provincial government was going to get a bill passed from the KP Assembly to replace the system in tribal districts. They told the court that the work for replacing the system was going fast and the government would soon table the draft-bill in the assembly.