Notices issued as PHC moved against internment centres

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday issued a notice to the federal and provincial government in Constitutional petition challenging the recent legislation meant to protect the laws, which were enforced in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas, including one governing internment centres.

A division bench comprising Justice Ikramullah and Justice Musarrat Hilali also issued a notice to Attorney General of Pakistan and Advocate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to appear in the court to assist it on legal issues raised in the petition. The bench directed the respondents to submit a reply within 14 days. Shabbir Hussain Gigyani pleaded before the court to strike down the KP Continuation of Laws in Erstwhile Pata Act, 2018, and KP Continuation of Laws in Erstwhile Fata Act, 2019. He insisted the two laws violated the Constitution and the judgments of superior courts.

He said the legislations illegally kept intact all the laws, regulations, rules, notifications meant for the erstwhile Fata and Pata, including the Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation, 2011. The petitioner requested the court to declare unconstitutional the establishment of internment centres in Fata and Pata under the Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation (AACPR), 2011, and order the government to hand over all internees to the relevant courts for trials.

He also sought the court’s orders for stopping the respondents, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, from promulgation of any laws, rules, regulations, notifications or any other legal instrument, which discriminate the public of erstwhile Fata/Pata from rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or in violation of the Constitutional and fundamental rights of the inhabitants of those areas. The petitioner said that through the Constitution (Twenty-Fifth Amendment) Act, 2018, the erstwhile Fata and Pata had been merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while Article 247 of the Constitution under which these areas were given different status to rest of the country was omitted.

He said that after the omission of Article 247 and amendments to Article 246, the discriminatory laws in practice in those areas ceased to exist and that all federal and provincial laws applicable in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were applied to the merged tribal districts.

The petitioner, who specialise in cases of internment and enforced disappearances, said that in the past, the residents of former Fata were suppressed through discriminatory laws including the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and AACPR 2011. He said that initially the government had promulgated the Fata Interim Governance Regulation, 2018, through which a parallel judicial system was launched, but the Peshawar High Court declared it in conflict with the Constitution on October 30, 2018. The petitioner said that through the two laws, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had given protection to some unconstitutional laws, including the Action (in aid of civil power) Regulation.