The way forward: PHC orders formation of committee to streamline domicile rules

The panel will be chaired by provincial secretary home and tribal affairs department

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has directed the formation of a committee to make comprehensive recommendations on the problems faced by students in obtaining a domicile.

The new panel is expected to submit a series of recommendations to improve the procedure and ensure domiciles are obtained easily. The panel will be headed by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) secretary home and tribal affairs department.



Peshawar High Court (PHC) Bar Association President Muhammad Isa Khan informed a two-member bench – comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Ikramullah Khan – the criteria for obtaining a domicile in K-P is needlessly complicated and poses numerous challenges for students. They urged the court to streamline the procedure for domiciles to ensure applicants, especially students, do not encounter any problems and can easily obtain domiciles.

K-P Advocate General (AG) Abdul Latif Yousafzai insisted the high court had ordered the formation of a committee under his chairmanship on May 5. The panel members would include law secretary, secretary home and tribal affairs department, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) chairman and the education secretary, he added.

According to Yousafzai, the committee would determine how the procedure of obtaining a domicile could be made more efficient so as to provide maximum convenience to students. However, the committee had not met regularly to discuss the matter.

“We have to appear in the Supreme Court for various cases. As a result, we have been unable to summon a committee meeting for several months now,” Yousafzai said.

According to the AG, the formation of a committee headed by either the secretary home and tribal affairs secretary or law secretary would serve as a suitable forum to address the issue. He pledged to assist the new panel regarding legal matters.

In 2013, the PHC summoned the provincial home secretary and AG to explain the procedure of obtaining a domicile and suggest ways to make it easier.

Advocate Khan had said the procedure to acquire the document forced students to stand in long queues outside the deputy commissioner’s office to first obtain the form, after which they had to get it signed by high-ranking government officers, followed by signatures from the tehsildar, patwari and other officers.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2014.