Specifying what the FATA and PATA regulations meant by the words “defined areas”, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the FATA Secretariat have notified the places falling under the phrase and the internment centres in their respective areas in pursuance of the FATA and PATA Regulations, an official of the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions told Pakistan Today.
The president had separately promulgated the two regulations, almost identical, called “Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulation 2011”, which provided legal cover to the armed forces for all military actions against suspects of terrorism in both federally and provincially administered Tribal Areas.
The laws had been made effective in retrospective terms from 2008 to cover all actions taken by the armed forces against the alleged suspects. It announced the establishment of internment centres where people suspected of being involved in terrorist activities would be detained. In pursuance to that clause of the both the regulations, the official source said, the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA Secretariat have declared internment centres in their respective areas.
Per details, sub-jail Swat, sub-jail Fizzaghat, sub-jail Malakand, sub-jail Timergarah, Frontier Constabulary Fort Chitral, District Jail Lakki Marwat and District Jail Kohat have been declared internment centres by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As far the internment centres in FATA are concerned, all lockups falling under the authority of political agents in FATA, around 21 in total, have been declared internment centres by the FATA Secretariat, the official added. He said respective jail superintendents would be in-charge of the internment centres.
Giving details of the defined areas, which had been ambiguous and undefined in both the regulations, the official said that Shangla, Swat, Buner, Chitral, Lower and Upper Dir, all areas of Malakand had been declared defined areas in respect of PATA by the provincial government.
He added that FATA agencies and all FRs in the tribal region were declared defined areas in FATA by the FATA Secretariat. The text of the regulation only mentioned the words “defined areas” and it remained ambiguous which areas fell under the definition.
However, some tribesmen said the areas were defined by the government to avoid legal complications, as the laws had already been challenged in court by Jamaat-e-Islami.