A five-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk, Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, Justice Yahya Afridi, Justice Qaiser Rasheed Khan and Justice Malik Manzoor Hussain reserved judgment after hearing arguments from senior lawyers, additional attorney general of Pakistan and law officers on the point of its jurisdiction in Fata.
During the course of hearing, Additional Advocate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Waqar Ahmad Khan submitted before the bench that the high court could send a reference to the Parliament for removal of difficulties related to jurisdiction of the superior courts in Fata.
He pointed out that there was discrepancy between Article 10-A of the Constitution related to fair trial and Sub-Article 7 of the Article 247, because residents of Fata had no chance of fair trial under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).
However, Additional Attorney General Syed Muhammad Attique Shah submitted that the high court couldn’t ask the Parliament through a reference for amendment to Sub-Article 7 of Article 247 of the Constitution.
He submitted that if there were some missing points in the law, the court could point those out to the Parliament. To the court’s question, he promised to provide records of the Parliament’s debate on Article 247 of the 1973 Constitution to the court in a day or two.
To a court’s query, the additional attorney general said the high court had jurisdiction in service matters in Fata when the employees were serving in Fata on deputation from both the federal and provincial governments.
During the previous hearing, Tariq Afridi as amicus curiae submitted before the bench that the court had jurisdiction to take up petitions filed by tribal people against illegal detention and violation of fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
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