ISLAMABAD - The FATA Reforms Committee headed by Prime Minister Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz will meet this week to finalise a draft bill seeking to do away with draconian British-era Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).
Sources privy to the development told The Nation that committee will meet on May 5 to give final touches to its report for the Prime Minister as the draft legislation would formally rescind the FCR. The extension of the jurisdiction of the Peshawar High Court to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) would give the region something its people have long desired but has always been denied: a judicial appeals process that does not leave the political agents in FATA as the ultimate arbiters of justice.
Yet, at the local level, the office of the political agent and the tribal jirga would continue to be influential and powerful.
The proposed bill, called the FATA Nizam-i-Adl Act, 2016, will be further considered by the Ministry of State and Frontier Regions (SFARON) and the Law Division.
The Frontier Crimes Regulation, termed a “black law” by many civil and human rights activists and enacted by the British Empire in 1901, gives sweeping powers to the civil administration to impose collective punishment on a family, tribe or sub-tribe.
According to Section 4 of the proposed law, Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 shall apply to FATA, subject to modifications under which a reference in the Code to the Magistrate, Magistrate of the First Class, Magistrate of the Third Class or Magistrate having powers under Section 30, shall be construed to be a reference to the Judge.
A reference in the code to the provincial government or federal government shall be construed to be a reference to the federal government, the draft bill says.
Similarly, a reference in the code to the District Magistrate shall be construed to be a reference to the political agent and a reference to the officer in charge of the police station shall be construed to be a reference to the officer in charge of the law enforcement agency deputed in tribal agency.
According to the bill, all powers vested in the district magistrate under the code shall be exercised by the political agent.
The bill also provides for application of the Civil Procedure Code to Fata, subject to modification that a reference to Civil Judge or Senior Civil Judge shall be construed to be a reference to the Judge, to be appointed by the federal government in consultation with the High Court in such number, such manner and such terms and condition as may be prescribed. Each judge, shall exercise his powers in subordination to the High Court. The High Court, it says, may, on the application of any of the parties, after notice to the other party and hearing them, transfer any civil or criminal matter to any Judge, within 30 days from the appointment of the Council of Elders.
The bill grants powers to the federal government to order the removal of any structures and encroachments situated in close proximity to the frontiers of Pakistan, if national security so warrants, to any suitable site, and award to the inhabitants such compensation of any loss which may have been occasioned by them.
It also gives powers to the political agents or DCOs in FRs to remove any person they deem to be dangerously fanatic or having no ostensible means of subsistence or someone who cannot give satisfactory account of himself or has a blood feud, by referring the matter to the Court for decision, and shall in accordance with the decision of the Court, require him to reside beyond or within the limits of FATA and FRs. Under the draft bill, appeal will be made to the high court. It also provides that no person shall be compulsorily deprived of his property unless he is paid adequate compensation.
The draft legislation has been prepared by the Fata Reforms Committee, which is headed by Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and includes Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid, Minister for State and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch and National Security Adviser Nasir Janjua. The committee was constituted by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on November 8, 2015. The committee has toured all the seven tribal agencies to seek public opinion on a host of issues including FCR and FATA’s status.