PHC withdraws stay order on DRCs

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday withdrew its stay order regarding dispute resolution councils (DRCs) after the provincial government submitted amendments in the law, under which legal cover has been given to the DRCs.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Roohul Amin Khan disposed of the writ petition and the PHC notice after Advocate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Abdul Latif Yousafzai submitted the amended law in the court.
The AG said the PHC had first stayed the DRCs and stopped it from work across the province as there were no legal cover to the DRCs and its decisions regarding dispute resolution in the police stations. He submitted that the KP Assembly through amendments in section 168 of Police Order 2002 had given legal cover to DRCs and its decisions.
Before the amendments, the PHC had asked Abdul Latif Yousafzai to explain if these DRCs were not parallel courts. The court also asked the advocate general to explain the legal position of DRCs. In previous hearing, PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel had questioned under what law the government had established DRCs at the police stations and made parallel courts for deciding cases.
After the court’s queries, the provincial government immediately brought amendments in the Police Order 2002 and gave legal cover to the DRCs.
In January 2014, the police authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa set up the first DRC at the Gulbahar Police Station in Peshawar in an effort to modernise the Pakhtun Jirga and provide it support from the police station concerned. Presently, there are over 50 DRCs all over Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with at least one body at the tehsil or subdivision level.
The court took notice of the issue in a writ petition by Qaiser Khan, a resident of Hayatabad. He had challenged the establishment of the DRCs and also the proceedings initiated against him on a complaint in the DRC located at the West Cantonment Police Station.
The PHC chief justice had observed that the court had also taken notice of the DRCs in February 2015 after knowing about it through the media.