PESHAWAR, May 19: The Peshawar High Court on Friday issued notice to the NWFP advocate-general on a writ petition challenging the arrest of 70 supporters of a cleric by the administration of Khyber Agency under the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

A bench comprising Justice Ijaz Afzal and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan fixed May 25 for next hearing.

The petition has been filed by Momin Khan, Haji Jehanzeb and 68 other members of Mufti Munir Shakir Bacha Tehrik, stating that they belonged to the settled area and were arrested by police. They said there shifting to Bara and continuous detention under the FCR was illegal and unconstitutional.

The petitioners claimed that Mufti Shakir was a respectable religious figure who was preaching Islam through his FM radio station in Bara. They stated that the administration banned the radio station and asked Mufti Shakir to leave the agency.

The petitioners claimed that they had set up a hunger strike camp on the Bara Road demanding restoration of the station and permission to the mufti to continue his activities in the area. However, police arrested 70 of them and registered an FIR against them at Pishtakhara police station on March 12, they said.

The following day, they were shifted to Bara, where the administration detained them under the FCR.

Advocate Mohammad Jamil Warsak appeared for the petitioners and argued that the government had not fulfilled the requirements under the Criminal Procedure Code for shifting the detainees to Khyber Agency.

The bench inquired from the counsel whether the petition was maintainable as Article 247 of the Constitution barred the superior courts from exercising jurisdiction in the tribal areas.

The counsel argued that the detainees belonged to settled area and they had been in settled area thus the FCR was not applicable on them. He said procedure was given under the CrPC for shifting an accused from settled to tribal area and the authorities had not followed it.