A file photo of a Jirga in the Kurram Agency. PHOTO:APP
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday summoned the political agent of Kurram Agency on February 27 to explain his alleged illegal detention of 19 jirga members.
The order was issued by a division bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ikramullah Khan after it was informed by petitioner Haji Shaber Hussain’s counsels Imad Anjum Durrani and Hasham Khan Mengal that the jirga members were arrested under Section 40 of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).
The counsels told the bench the agency’s political administration on January 19 called the jirga members to resolve a dispute between two tribes in Parachinar within three hours or face imprisonment.
They said when the jirga members failed to resolve the issue in the given time they were arrested under FCR’s collective responsibility clause and sent to prison, adding all of them are elders of the area aged between 60 to 80 years.
“MNA Sajjid Hussain Turi and the Frontier Corps commandant assured the political administration they will resolve the inter-tribal issue within a month and asked that the arrested members be released soon but they are still in prison,” said one of the counsels.
After hearing the initial arguments, the court ordered Kurram Agency’s political agent to appear in person on the next date of hearing on February 27 to explain his position.
In a separate case, PHC Chief Justice Mian Fashiul Mulk granted bail to four people arrested in a Rs77 million embezzlement case of the controller military accounts by the Federal Investigation Agency in June last year.
The accused include senior audit officer Muhammad Israr, head of audit department Mehr Jamal, assistant account officer Abdul Karim and account officer Muhammad Tariq. They were charged under sections 5-2, 406, 409, 420 and 471 of the prevention of corruption ordinance.
The PHC had earlier refused to grant bail to the accused after which they approached the Supreme Court which remanded the case back to PHC and directed it to hear the case from start. The court granted bail to each individual in return for sureties of Rs500,000 each.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2014.
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