Court accepts petition of alleged militant sentenced under FCR

This court will not sit silent when fundamental rights of citizens are curtailed in this manner, says PHC CJ.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has accepted a writ petition of a Swat resident, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), citing that the litigant was not provided the opportunity to defend himself.  

According to a verdict of the Assistant Political Agent (APA) Landi Kotal, Khyber Agency available to The Express Tribune, Lal Badshah, who has been behind bars at the Haripur Central Jail, was handed over by the Afghan authorities to the Khyber political administration on September 21, 2009 for his alleged involvement with militants.

The documents portray Badshah as a ‘grey’ category militant, handed over to the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) for further investigation. Later the JIT put him into the “Black” category as he remained a commander of the banned Tehrek-e-Taliban Swat and his house was demolished by the security forces during the military operation in Swat. A jirga of locals had also declared him a member of the TTP.

According to the commissioner FCR’s verdict, “the JIT’ and DPO Swat reports says that the appellant was a Taliban commander.”

However, Badshah approached the FATA tribunal which also refused any change into the orders of the APA Landi Kotal and commissioner.

The tribunal’s order said that the petitioner was declared a ‘black’ category militant by the JIT and special branch police supported by the local jirga.

“The proceedings of the case were conducted in accordance with the procedure under the FCR and as such the impugned order deserves no interference and accordingly is dismissed,” the order said.

Badshah’s Counsel, Samiullah Afridi, who has also been contesting Shakil Afridi’s case, told the court that his client had been refused the right to self-defence and termed it a violation of human rights.

Chief Justice (CJ) PHC Dost Muhammad Khan, while heading a division bench with Justice Khalid Mehmood, said that PHC’s jurisdictions had not been extended to Fata, but stated that the court will not sit back in such a situation. “This court will not sit silent when fundamental rights of citizens are curtailed in this manner,” the bench ordered and accepted the petition for further proceedings.