In a bid to separate judicial and executive powers vested in the authority of a political agent in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) since British rule, the people of the tribal areas will now have the right to appeal against decisions of the political agents for the first time, and an appellate authority – a district and sessions judge or a person qualified to be a district and sessions judge – would be appointed for that purpose, according to the amended Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) likely to be announced on August 14 by the government.
The amended FCR, to be called Frontier Crimes (Amendment) Regulation of 2011, would be clubbed together with the presidential order to extend the Political Parties Act of 2002 under a “FATA Reforms Package”, an official source told Pakistan Today. “Right to appeal provided to the Appellate Authority against the decisions of a Political Agent and District Coordination Officer (DCO), an Appellate Authority shall comprise of a District and Session Judge or a person qualified to be appointed District and Session Judge,” states the amended FCR, a copy of which was available with Pakistan Today.
Regarding right of bail against the decisions of the political agents, the amended FCR stated that the right of bail might be granted to the accused as was the practice under the constitution in the settled areas of the country. The amended FCR says further that a FATA Tribunal, having powers similar to that of a high court, would be constituted and it would have the authority to review the decisions of the Appellate Authority.
“The FATA Tribunal shall consist of a Chairman, who has been a judge of the High Court, and two others members out of whom one shall be a person of civil administration, not less than of grade BPS-20 with experience of tribal administration, and other person shall be qualified to be appointed as a High Court judge and well conversant with Rawaj. The FATA Tribunal shall exercise powers of revision against orders/judgments of the Appellate Authority. The tribunal shall also be invested with powers similar to High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution,” the document states.
Regarding arrests of a whole tribe as collective responsibility for being “hostile or unfriendly,” the amendments sought immunity to women, children below the age of 16 and men above 65 from the arrest orders issued by the political agents. According to the document, certain restrictions would also be imposed on the arbitrary powers of the political agents regarding placing the whole unfriendly tribe under arrest under the clause of collective responsibility.
“Further, instead of placing the whole tribe under arrest, its scope has to be limited by providing that action would be taken step-wise, first against immediate male members of family and tribe, second sub-tribe and third and fourth other sections of the tribe,” the document says.