PESHAWAR, Jan 31: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday accepted a writ petition and declared as illegal the detention of five people for the last seven months under the collective responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

The bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Saleem Khan ruled that officials of the tribal administration had not fulfilled the requirements under the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) while arresting the petitioners from the settled area.

The detainees belong to the tribe of an alleged carjacker was wanted in different theft cases by the tribal administration.

As the administration could not apprehend the accused, Ameer Said alias Charg, they arrested the tribesmen to force him to surrender.

The detainees — Shah Said, Gul Said, Jum Said, Saifullah and Asifullah — were allegedly arrested from Khan Mast colony in the provincial metropolis on June 21, 2005.

Advocate Abdul Lateef Afridi appeared for the detainees and contended that their detention under the FCR was illegal and unconstitutional. He argued that they were picked from the settled area where the tribal administration had no jurisdiction.

Mr Afridi contended that while shifting the detainees to tribal area the administration had not fulfilled legal requirements under section 86-A of the CrPC. He added that the detainees could not be held responsible for any illegality committed by a member of their tribe.

The state counsel stated that the petition was not maintainable as the high court could not exercise any jurisdiction in the tribal area under article 247 of the Constitution. He added that as the detainees had been detained in Fata, therefore the petition was liable to be dismissed.

The court observed that the tribal administration should have adopted the procedure under section 86-A for the detention of the petitioners.