PESHAWAR, June 21: A bench of the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday commuted the sentence of a man who had been sentenced to 50 years imprisonment by an assistant political agent in Mohmand Agency under the Frontier Crimes Regulation.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez and Justice Qaim Jan Khan, accepted a writ petition filed by Sherzada Khan and reduced his sentence to 13 years imprisonment, which he has already served. The court ordered his release.

The petitioner’s counsel stated that the assistant political agent had exceeded his authority under the FCR. He said the official had tried the petitioner in his capacity as district magistrate and, under the Criminal Procedure Code, he was only empowered to sentence a person up to 14 years imprisonment.

About jurisdiction of the high court in tribal areas, he said the petitioner had been detained at the Dera Ismail Khan prison which was in the jurisdiction of the high court.

Sherzada Khan was arrested in 1993 in connection with six cases of kidnapping for ransom, highway robberies etc. He was convicted on July 5, 1993, in the light of findings of a tribal jirga. In three cases, he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each with a fine of Rs50,000 in each case and in case of default, he had to undergo one year imprisonment. In the other three cases, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment each with a fine of Rs20,000 in each case. In case of default he had to undergo another six months imprisonment. His appeal was dismissed by the FCR commissioner on Sep 23, 1993, and the FCR tribunal also dismissed his revision petition on March 25, 2000.