PESHAWAR, Jan 15: The federal government is expected to establish within the next couple of days seven anti-terrorism courts in the NWFP for expeditious disposal of terrorism cases.

Informed sources told Dawn that the issue had been lingering on since September but after the decisions announced by President Pervez Musharraf in his speech on Saturday the process has been expedited.

It is learnt that in the next few days the federal government will issue a notification for the establishment of these courts under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

The Finance Division, Islamabad, gave its approval in October and Rs16 million has already been sanctioned for the setting up of these courts.

An official of the Peshawar High Court said that on the recommendations of the then chief justice of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, the Law Division had sent a summary to the Finance Division, seeking its sanction to the setting up of anti-terrorism courts in the province.

The then chief justice had also recommended names of persons to be appointed presiding officers of these courts as under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the presiding officer of an anti-terrorism court in a province shall be appointed in consultation with the chief justice of the high court concerned.

According to the guidelines set by the Supreme Court in the Sheikh Liaquat Ali and Others case in 1999, an anti-terrorism court has to be assigned one case at a time and till judgment is announced in such case, no other cases will be entrusted to it.

At present, the respective district and sessions judges have been enjoying the powers of special courts under the Suppression of Terrorist Activities (Special Courts) Act, 1975, as no separate special courts have been established under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.

Justice Nasirul Mulk,a senior judge of the Peshawar High Court, has been monitoring the implementation of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, as well as the processing and hearing of the cases pending in the PHC and the special courts under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.