PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday put off hearing yet again into the petition of former agency surgeon Dr Shakil Afridi against the upholding of his conviction by an appellate forum for links with banned militant outfits, as the provincial advocate general was absent.

Chief Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar ordered the fixing of the hearing in the first week of next month.

The revision petition of Dr Shakil had remained pending with the erstwhile Fata Tribunal for around four years and was shifted to the high court few months ago in the wake of merger of the former tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In June this year, the court had put the provincial government on notice over the petition.

The FCR (Frontier Crimes Regulation) commissioner had upheld the conviction of Dr Shakil in 2014 for being linked to a banned militant organisation of Bara tehsil but reduced his prison term slapped by the assistant political agent’s court from 33 years to 23 years and the fine from Rs320,000 to Rs220,000.

Through the revision petition, Dr Shakil had challenged the commissioner’s decision in the Fata tribunal, which was the third and final judicial forum under the erstwhile FCR.

Similarly, the administration had also moved the tribunal through a petition seeking increase in the sentence of Dr Shakil.

The bench also adjourned hearing into the administration’s petition until the first week of Nov.

Abdul Lateef Afridi and Qamar Nadeem, counsel for Dr Shakil, said the provisions of law under which their client was convicted could only be invoked after the prior permission of the government.

Lateef Afridi contended that the sanction of the government was not taken for trying his client.

An additional advocate general informed the court that advocate general Shumail Ahmad Butt had gone to Islamabad to appear before the Supreme Court in some important cases.

He requested the court to adjourn proceedings saying the AG will argue the case on behalf of the government.

Dr Shakil was taken into custody in May 2011 by intelligence agencies on the suspicion of arranging a fake vaccination campaign at the behest of American CIA in Abbottabad for tracing Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

However, he was not convicted by the trial court on that charge.

The assistant political agent, who was also the additional district magistrate of Bara tehsil in Khyber agency (now a tribal district), convicted him on May 23, 2012, for involvement in anti-state activities by supporting the Bara-based banned outfit, Lashkar-i-Islam, and awarded a total of 33-year imprisonment and Rs320,000 fine to him for sedition, waging war against Pakistan, concealing design to wage war against Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2019