ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) observed on Monday that the judiciary could intervene only if an order passed under the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) affects the settled areas in terms of fundamental rights.
The court observed that it could exceed its limits if fundamental rights are violated and the judicial system in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) affects the settled areas. As far as abolition of the FCR is concerned, the court observed, even the legislature, which is a superior institution, cannot legislate against the FCR because the constitution does not allow this.
The court said that people in tribal areas discussed the FCR, but they did not want its abolition because it was implemented with their consent. It said the constitution put a bar on reforms in the justice system of the FATA. The judges said that they had taken oath under the law and the constitution could not be bypassed.
These observations were made during the hearing of Advocate Ibrahim Satti’s petition seeking dispensation of justice to the tribal people through conventional courts. The three-member bench consisted of Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Sardar Raza Tariq as its members and Justice Gulzar Ahmed as its head.
Satti argued that the fundamental rights conferred by the constitution of Pakistan had been denied to the citizens of Pakistan settled in the FATA. He stated that such constitutional questions needed to be addressed.
He pleaded that reforms for dispensation of justice to the people of the FATA were a constitutional subject and a matter of judicature. He said that people belonging to the FATA should be dispensed justice through the conventional courts and the FCR should be declared void and against the fundamental rights.
He said that tribal people were citizens of Pakistan, but they had no access to justice. He argued that the SC had observed in its judgments in the past that two judicial systems could not be allowed to work in a country. The court had said that if the legislature and the head of the state were not interested in rights of the tribal people, the judiciary could intervene to stop violation of fundamental rights.
Following the arguments, the court issued a notice to the attorney general to submit federation’s reply on the issue and adjourned the case for two weeks.
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