PHC ready to extend regular courts to ex-Fata region

K-P govt urged to make necessary arrangements for setting up courts in tribal districts

PESHAWAR: As part of the process of merging the federally administered tribal areas (Fata) with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the Peshawar High Court (PHC) is all set to extend regular courts to the tribal districts for safeguarding the constitutionally guaranteed rights of tribal people.

According to an official communique issued on Monday, the PHC said that it was waiting for the necessary action from the provincial government to declare the seven tribal districts as session divisions and to sanction the required judicial posts.

It said that as early as July this year, the PHC had moved a summary to the then K-P chief minister seeking a notification for the establishment of session courts and courts of senior civil judges in the newly created tribal districts.

The official communique hoped
that necessary arrangements would be made by the government at the earliest so that the prevailing state of uncertainty can be settled.

It said the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in human rights case no. 70788-/2018 on the required system in tribal areas after the 25th Constitutional amendment, had taken notice of the situation and the provincial government, amongst others, had also been served with notices.

The PHC had recently declared the Interim Governance Regulation 2018, as ultra vires the Constitution and had set a deadline of 30-days for the establishment of regular courts in the erstwhile Fata in writ petition No.3098-p/2018 on 30/10/2018.

Being cognizant of the pivotal role of the judiciary in the administration of justice, it said that the PHC and K-P Judicial Academy had started its spadework even when the Fata reforms and the merger of the tribal areas into K-P was still being contemplated by the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 18^th, 2018.