Quick fixes: Dispensing justice in FATA, the local way

After being trained at the judicial academy, APA-cum-magistrate starts hearing cases.

GHALLANAI:

As a peon steps out of the assistant political agent’s office in Ghallanai, Mohmand Agency and announces the names of two petitioners whose hearing is now due, it comes as a pleasant surprise for the rest of the people waiting outside to get their complaints heard.

For many tribesmen, a political administration official acting as a judicial magistrate and dispensing justice is a long-awaited relief. Court reader Wakeel Khan told The Express Tribune that Ghallanai Assistant Political Agent (APA) Jamshed Khan, who is a judicial magistrate as well as an administrative officer in the agency, began the practice after his recent transfer to Mohmand. He regularised the practice, selecting Wednesdays and Thursdays for hearings, after receiving training from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy.

In August 2011, former president Asif Ali Zardai introduced some amendments in the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), setting up a legal system of sorts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata). The government was directed to appoint judicial magistrates in every tehsil of Fata. The FATA Secretariat was given the task to train APAs for the purpose at the judicial academy in Peshawar. The move was welcomed by locals but the Fata Lawyers Forum criticised it, demanding that people of the legal community be made magistrates. They claimed an administrative officer could not be made a magistrate as then he would be playing the judge, jury and executioner.

How it works

When asked about the new practice, the APA was all praise for the FCR and said it entails a speedy justice system which was introduced in 1901 after studying local tribal traditions and following subsequent reforms. “It is as good or bad as the laws of the settled areas.”

Explaining the process, he said a petitioner submits an application after which it is forwarded to the relevant administrative officer who summons all the parties, listens to their views and sends back a comprehensive report. Then a council of elders, with at least three tribal elders well-versed in the tribal justice system, is formed with the consent of all parties. The jirga discusses the issue in light of tribal traditions and presents its findings, which at most takes a month.

Khan said the jirga’s proposal is then discussed with the judicial magistrate in the presence of the relevant parties till a settlement is reached.

If the parties are unsatisfied with the judgment they apply for a review in the same court or in the court of the Fata commissioner, where a similar process is undertaken. The last forum for appeals is the FATA Tribunal which is composed of senior bureaucrats and lawyers.

Zewar Khan of the Kamali Haleemzai tribe, whose petition concerning a land dispute is being heard by the APA, told The Express Tribune he is satisfied with the process but said the main difference from the settled areas is lack of land records. He said since land records do not exist in Fata, it becomes difficult to determine land ownership as is happening in his case.

A tribal elder, Malik Muhammad Ali, praised the APA’s role as a judicial magistrate and said the pace of dispensing justice here is quicker than that in the settled areas. He said those opposing the system have personal benefits in mind and are unaware of tribal customs, adding lawyers work after charging fees from clients whereas jirga members do not charge a penny to settle the disputes.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2014.