KHAR: All Bajaur Political Parties Alliance on Saturday expressed concern over absence of any law in the tribal districts and called for immediate extension of country’s judiciary to the region.

Addressing a news conference at Bajaur Press Club, the alliance’s president Maulana Waheed Gul, general secretary Said Ahmed Jan and others lamented that the region was without any law after the suspension of Interim Governance Regulation by the Peshawar High Court, last month.

They said the court’s ruling was welcomed as the regulation was not only tougher than the Frontier Crimes Regulation, but also it was in contrast with Article 175 of the Constitution, separating judiciary from the executive.

However, they said revoking of IGR had created a vacuum in the governance system in the tribal districts.

The alliance leaders termed the absence of any law and governance system in the tribal districts a clear violation of the high court’s Oct 30 judgment in which it had directed the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments to make alternative arrangements in accordance with the constitution within 30 days, which meant that country’s judicial system needed to be extended to the tribal districts.

But, they said the federal and the provincial governments had failed to implement the court’s order despite expiry of the deadline a week ago.

They said the people of the tribal districts had attached great expectations from the PTI government for bringing visible changes in the region, but to no avail.

The alliance leaders also slammed the provincial government for its decision to challenge the high court judgment. They asked the KP government to take tangible steps for extension of judicial system in the tribal districts instead of challenging the court’s decision. They said the people of tribal districts would start a protest movement if the government challenged the court decision.

They rejected the government’s stance that there was no building and infrastructure for functioning of judiciary in the tribal districts, saying a lot of buildings in each district were available for housing the courts.

The leaders also welcomed the prime minister’s announcement about introducing local government system in the tribal districts and asked for announcing the schedule of the elections.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2018