PESHAWAR: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) Tribunal on Thursday once again sought record of the Dr Shakil Afridi conviction case from the Khyber Agency political agent.

The tribunal comprising chairman Sange Marjan Khan and member Atif Nazir later adjourned to Sept 9 the hearing into the former agency surgeon’s petition against the upholding of his conviction by an appellate forum for links with an outlawed militant organisation.

It also ordered the production of the record before that date.

Despite repeated notices issued over a year, the political agent hasn’t produced the record for the hearing into Dr Shakil’s petition against the upholding of his conviction by an appellate forum for links with an outlawed militant organisation.

The tribunal, the third and final judicial forum under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), also adjourned hearing into a petition of the Khyber Agency administration seeking the increase in Dr Shakil’s sentence.

Qamar Nadeem, lawyer for Dr Shakil, told Dawn that when he appeared before the tribunal, he was informed that hearing had been put off due to unavailability of the case record.

The FCR Commissioner, which is the appellate forum under the FCR, had on March 15, 2014 upheld the conviction of Dr Shakil for being linked to a banned militant organisation of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency but reduced his imprisonment sentence given by the assistant political agent’s court from 33 years to 23 years and that of the Rs320,000 fine to Rs220,000.

Dr Shakil challenged the upholding of his conviction by the FCR commissioner by filing the current review petition.

Since the filing of the petition last year, no noteworthy progress has taken place in it. The case continues to linger for one reason or another.

In January this year, the tribunal became non-functional as the then incumbent chairman and members had completed their term due to which hearing in the case could not take place for many months.

Finally, the present chairman and members of the tribunal were appointed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor by the end of May.

During the previous hearing on June 24, the tribunal once again called for record but in vain.

Petitioner Dr Shakil claimed he was denied the right to fair trial and was convicted by the assistant

Dr Shakil case adjourned again over non-production of record political agent on ‘flimsy grounds.’

The petitioner has contended that the FCR commissioner had ignored several facts while upholding his conviction. He stated that earlier the commissioner was sent back the case by the tribunal for clarifying certain points, but instead of clarifying those points the commissioner upheld the decision of the APA.

Dr Shakil was picked up allegedly by an intelligence agency in May 2011 on suspicion of helping the American CIA trace Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

However, he was not convicted on that charge.

The assistant political agent, who is also the additional district magistrate of Bara, convicted him on May 23, 2012 for involvement in anti-state activities by supporting the Bara-based Lashkar-i-Islam, and sentenced him on different counts to a total of 33 years imprisonment with fine of Rs320,000.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2015

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