PESHAWAR, Sept 24: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday dismissed a writ petition of a person sentenced to 42 years’ rigorous imprisonment by the tribal administration of Kurram Agency under the Frontier Crimes Regulations.

The bench comprising Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi and Justice Ijazul Hassan observed that under article 247(7) of the Constitution the high court could not exercise jurisdiction in the tribal areas.

The convict, Dildar Hussain, who is in prison since 1988, had sent an application to the high court through the superintendent of D.I.Khan central prison, which was converted into a writ petition by the high court.

Mr Hussain was charged with killing one person and injuring two others. He was also charged with sedition.

The assistant political agent, Upper Kurram, in his capacity as additional district magistrate had convicted the petitioner in Sept 1988 on the recommendation of a jirga. He was sentenced to 14 years’ rigorous imprisonment each, under three different sections of Pakistan Penal Code read with the FCR, and the APA ordered that the three sentences should run consecutively and not concurrently.

He was sentenced under section 121-A, 124-A and 436 of PPC and section 11 of FCR. He was also fined Rs6,00,000 in default of which he would undergo six years extra imprisonment. As he is a poor man, he could not pay the fine due to which he will also spend six more years in prison, thus he would complete 48 years’ imprisonment.

The petitioner stated that the jirga put forward one-sided recommendations on the basis of which he was sentenced by the APA. He held that under section 35 of the CrPC, sentence in cases of conviction of several offences at one trial should not exceed 25 years imprisonment. He said the APA and the appellate forum violated that provision of the CrPC by sentencing him to 42 years’ imprisonment.