PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday set aside the first order issued under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO) by the political agent of North Waziristan Agency of expelling a leader of the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) from the region and banning his entry for three months.

The bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali accepted a writ petition filed by Mohsin Dawar, an advocate of the high court who is a key leader of PTM, and declared the order of the political agent (now deputy commissioner)/district magistrate issued on June 7 as illegal.

The bench pronounced a short order stating that the detailed reasons for allowing the writ petition would be recorded later.

The petitioner had requested the court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional the impugned order issued on June 7 under Section 5 of the West Pakistan Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO), 1960.

The impugned order was the first one issued under the MPO after the enactment of the Constitution (Twenty Fifth Amendment) Act, 2018, through which tribal areas were merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Prior to the merger the MPO was not applicable to Fata.

The impugned order states that the petitioner shall not enter the limits of the agency and the order shall remain in force for three months.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2018