PESHAWAR, March 12: The federal government has established seven anti-terrorism courts in the NWFP.

According to a notification, issued on March 5 by the Law, Justice and Human Rights Division, these courts will be set up in the erstwhile divisional headquarters of the province.

With the consultation of the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), three serving and three retired district and sessions judges and a lawyer of the high court have been appointed presiding officers of the courts.

Sources in the law department said that for the time being, the federal government had dropped the idea of inducting army officers into the ATCs.

The PHC on Tuesday issued a notification for relieving the three serving district and sessions judges and handed over their services to the federal government for their induction into the ATCs as presiding officers.

The ATCs will be established in Peshawar, Mardan, Saidu Sharif (Swat), Abbottabad, Bannu, Kohat and D. I. Khan. The presiding officers of the courts are: district and sessions judges Muhammad Ayaz Khan, Shahjehan Khan and Amir Gulab Khan; former district and sessions judges Akhter Zareef Khan, Ayub Khan and Aziz Akhter Chughtai; and a practising lawyer, Shabir Hussain Shah.

Akhter Zareef Khan have been appointed at Peshawar, Shabir Hussain at Mardan, Muhammad Ayaz Khan at Saidu Sharif, Shahjehan Khan at Abbottabad, Amir Gulab Khan at Kohat, Aziz Akhter at Bannu and Muhammad Ayub Khan at D. I. Khan.

The government has asked the PHC to provide the staff concerned to the ATCs so that it could start functioning at the earliest. The ATC in Peshawar will be housed in the newly-announced judicial complex.

It has also been learnt that the federal government wants the courts to start functioning on March 10. However, due to lack of proper infrastructure, including courts, residences, vehicles and security arrangements, the functioning of the ATCs has to be delayed.

Although the process of establishing the ATCs in the NWFP started last year on Aug 14 after amendments had been made to the Anti-terrorism Act, 1999. Through those amendments, the ATA was extended to the NWFP and Balochistan.

The establishment of the ATCs lingered on and was delayed due to one reason or another. After the recent amendments to the ATA, 1997, through which the federal government decided to induct a military officer as member of the ATC, the idea of establishing the courts was dropped. However, when the Lahore High Court on Feb 12 stayed the establishment of the new ATCs with military officers as its members, the government decided to establish the ATCs in the NWFP without the induction of army officers.

Before Aug 14, 2001, when amendments to the ATA had not been made in the NWFP, special courts for the suppression of terrorist activities were functioning under the Suppression of Terrorist Activities (Special Courts) Act 1975. However, through a presidential ordinance on Aug 14 last year, amendments were made to the ATA, 1997 and the Suppression of Terrorist Activities (Special Courts) Act, 1975, was repealed.