Frontier Constabulary relocation: PHC warns of contempt proceedings against interior ministry

Federal government no longer has control of FC, says court.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has warned it will initiate contempt proceedings against the federal government if it fails to relocate the Frontier Constabulary (FC) to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) before March 13.

The court has directed Deputy Attorney General Iqbal Mohmand to contact the attorney general of Pakistan and the federal interior secretary.

The orders commanding the FC’s relocation were issued by a PHC bench comprising Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth during the hearing of a petition filed by the K-P government regarding FC’s current postings.

Deputy secretary of the interior ministry, Muhammad Mureed, submitted the federal government’s reply to the court and added that the Election Commission of Pakistan had requested FC personnel to remain at their posts until the general elections.

The federal government also maintained that the high court had no jurisdiction regarding the FC’s relocation as it was a federal force.



“Either challenge the order at the Supreme Court or comply with the high court’s orders,” the bench said in response to the government’s reply, adding that the concurrent list had been dissolved after the 18th Amendment and the federal government has lost control over the FC.

“You have made it a mercenary force. Identify a single place where the FC has been deployed to maintain law and order instead of VVIP security,” CJ Khan said. The CJ also questioned whether a case could be registered against the federal government regarding the Khyber House attack.

In May 2012, the K-P government filed an application before the PHC seeking its intervention in relocating the paramilitary force. The provincial government claimed it did not have sufficient manpower to confront the deteriorating law and order situation in the province as the federal government had deployed more than 100 FC platoons outside K-P.

On November 6, Mureed assured the court the FC would be relocated within two months. But on January 11, the interior ministry ordered additional FC troops to be posted in the federal capital ahead of Tahirul Qadri’s long march without the consent of the K-P government.

During the hearing on January 31, the PHC issued contempt of court notices against the interior minister, federal secretary and advisor of the Ministry of Interior for failing to comply with court orders.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2013.