Human Rights Commission South Asia

HOME     CONTACT US     RESOURCES & LINKS     ABOUT US     CONTRIBUTE 

Reforms in FCR await president’s approval, court told.

The Peshawar High Court on Thursday disposed of a writ petition challenging the colonial era law of Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) as a representative of federal government stated that the summary for reforming the law had already been okayed by the federal cabinet and now it awaited approval by the president. The deputy attorney general, Muzamil Khan, stated that a high-level cabinet committee was earlier constituted which had recommended various amendments in the FCR including section 21 dealing with “collective responsibility” of a tribe or individual.

The petition was filed by the Human Rights Commission of South Asia through its Pakistan’s Correspondent Syed Muhammad Iqbal Kazmi and its Correspondent for NWFP/Fata, Advocate Abdul Samad Khan Marwat, requesting the court that the residents of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) be equated with other citizens of the country.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Pir Liaqat Ali disposed of the petition observing that the government had already decided to introduce reforms in the law. During course of proceedings Justice Dost Muhammad observed that the tribal areas had been kept backward intentionally. The bench observed that there was no medical college or university in the tribal areas despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people resided there. “While parliamentarians have been elected from Fata, but they could not legislate for their areas. The colonial rulers had introduced the FCR for controlling the tribal areas,” Justice Dost Muhammad observed.

Mr Muzamil Khan stated that the proposals given by the cabinet committee were appreciated by the federal cabinet and had also approved the same. He added that now the summary was before the President of Pakistan as under Article 247 of the Constitution he could amend the law. Advocate Abdul Samad Marwat argued that since long the government had been making commitments for amending the FCR, but so far they had failed in that regard. The bench questioned the locus standi of the petitioner for filing the instant petition observing that the petitioners were not aggrieved persons as they did not belong to tribal areas.

Mr Marwat argued that it was a public interest petition and he wanted the court to interpret the law whether it was in conflict with the constitution or not. He referred to the comments filed by secretaries of establishment and state and frontier region divisions stating that they had also conceded that several provisions of the FCR were in conflict with the constitution. The petitioner had prayed the court to issue directives that the FCR, 1901, may be brought in conformity with the constitution and its discriminatory provisions may be brought under the umbrella of normal laws of justice prevalent in rest of the country.