PHC declares extending police-like authority ord void

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday declared the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019 illegal and unconstitutional and directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief to take control of internment centres in which hundreds of terror suspects have been languishing since years.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Musarrat Hilali also directed the Inspector General of Police to form a scrutiny committee within three days and review the charges against the internees charged in terrorism cases and languishing there since years without trials.

The court ordered that if the internees are found involved in the terrorist activities, then they be tried by the proper courts and those found innocent by the scrutiny committee should be released.

The court declared the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Action (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019 as void.

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

The court declared as illegal and unconstitutional the two Acts of the KP Assembly, passed for Continuation of Laws in Erstwhile Pata Act, 2018, and KP Continuation of Laws in Erstwhile Fata Act, 2019, which had been challenged in the high court.

During the hearing, Shabir Hussain Gigyani submitted before the court that first, the KP government was not competent to pass an act for the continuation of the law, which is already repealed as Article 247 of Constitution and was omitted.

The petitioner Shabir Hussain Gigyani advocate argued that he has also challenged the recently promulgated ordinance, which was promulgated to defeat the writ petition in the court.

The petitioner 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.

Gigyani stated that the KP Actions (in Aid of Civil Power) Ordinance, 2019, which was issued by the governor on August 5, is 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.