Centre using delaying tactics by seeking adjournments, observes PHC

PESHAWAR: Chief Justice Peshawar High Court (PHC) Waqar Ahmad Seth observed on Wednesday that the federal government was adopting delaying tactics through submission of applications for adjournments and if this practice continued the court would argue cases through deputy attorney generals without waiting for the attorney general of Pakistan.“Backlog of cases increases due to delaying tactics of federal government which is seeking adjournments in important cases,” the chief justice remarked when the deputy attorney general sought more time for appearance of the attorney general of Pakistan in a writ petition filed against the promulgation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance.

At the previous hearing, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general had sought time for submission of comments in the petition.

The chief justice observed at the last hearing that it seemed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has suspended the Constitution by promulgating the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance in the province.

“The purpose of the ordinance is to give legal cover to those pending cases in which suspects are still languishing at the internment centres for many years,” he observed, while hearing a writ petition challenging the ordinance and legal cover by the provincial government to the internment centres through laws, which the petitioner claimed was ultra vires of the Constitution.

The writ petition was filed against the promulgation of the ordinance through which the powers earlier assigned to the armed forces in erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata) and provincially administered tribal areas (Pata) have now been extended to the entire province.

The provincial government promulgated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019 on August 5 after the withdrawal of two laws - KP Continuation of Laws in Erstwhile Pata Act, 2018, and KP Continuation of Laws in Erstwhile Fata Act, 2019, which were challenged in the high court. Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, who filed the petition, submitted that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has promulgated an ordinance extending certain powers of the armed forces, which were available in the erstwhile Fata and Pata while acting in aid of civil power, to the entire province.

The petitioner stated that the KP Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019, which was promulgated by the governor on August 5, was almost a reproduction of two regulations promulgated by the president in 2011 for Fata and Pata through which legal cover was given to several detention centres set up during the military operations in different regions. The petitioner stated the government through this ordinance has empowered the armed forces to take action against citizens in the whole of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He said the ordinance assigned wide-ranging powers to the authorised officers and armed forces besides giving an interning authority to detain a suspect until the continuation of action in aid of civil power by the armed forces. As per the ordinance, the armed forces have also been empowered to occupy any property with the approval of the provincial government. The court fixed October 17 for next hearing.