PESHAWAR, July 6: The proposed Hasba law will not apply to the seven districts of the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) without the approval of the president. Legal circles told Dawn that though Pata was part of the NWFP the federal and provincial laws were not applicable to it, unless the governor issued specific directions in this regard with the president’s approval.

Out of the 24 districts of the NWFP, Pata includes the districts of Upper and Lower Dir, Swat, Chitral, Shangla, Buner and Malakand Protected Area. It also includes some tribal areas of Kohistan district.

“Under Article 247 of the constitution no act of the parliament or the provincial assembly is applicable to Pata without the direction of the governor and that too with prior approval of the president,” said an advocate of the high court.

Article 247 (3) states: “No act of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) shall apply to any Federally Administered Tribal Area or to any part thereof, unless the President so desires, and no Act of Majlis-i-Shoora (Parliament) or a provincial assembly shall apply to a Provincially Administered Tribal Areas, or to any part thereof, unless the Governor of the Province in which the Tribal Area is situated, with the approval of the President, so directs; and in giving such a direction with respect to any law, the president or, as the case may be, the Governor, may direct that the law shall, in its application to a Tribal Area, or to a specified-part thereof, have effect subject to such exceptions and modifications as may be specified in the direction.”

Lawyers said that the MMA government would be hamstrung when it comes to extending the law to Pata as the president and the governor may not favour the same in view of the civil society’s strong opposition to the proposed law.

While the provincial ombudsman proposed in the Hasba Bill would be appointed for the whole of the province, he would not be legally empowered to exercise any jurisdiction in Pata unless the president so desires.

It is learnt that due to the same legal hurdles, the provincial government has been trying to secure the support of former prime minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain so that the federal government could be convinced to extend the law to Pata after its enactment.

The provincial cabinet has already approved the draft Hasba bill which will be tabled in the next couple of days.

Pata enjoys special status under the constitution and the nomenclature of courts are also different there as compared to the rest of the province. The district and sessions judge and the civil judge are called as zila qazi and dewani qazi.