PESHAWAR, Aug 22: A bench of the Peshawar High Court dismissed a habeas corpus petition in a detention case registered under the FCR, and ruled that the high court had no powers to exercise in Fata.

The two-member bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervaiz and Justice Qaim Jan Khan, observed that under Article 247 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court and the high courts could not take up the cases of tribal area.

Petitioner, Nawab Ali, allegedly nabbed on April 24 by officials of Bhadabher police, had claimed that he had been kept in an illegal custody.

Nawab had told the court that after the arrest, he had been handed over to the Crimes Investigation Agency (CIA), which gave him later in the custody of Bara Administration, Khyber Agency.

The court had summoned CIA Investigation Officer Murtaza Khan to appear before the court on Wednesday.

The CIA official concerned the other day refuted the allegation that the detainee had been kept in the illegal custody. Nawab Ali had been handed over to CIA by the tribal administration with the request to interrogate him, he added and told the court that at present, the accused was facing trial under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR).

Advocate Jawed A.Khan appeared for the petitioner and stated that his client’s removal from settled area to tribal area was against the law. Although the arrest was shown by the administration on May 8, he was nabbed on April 24, Mr Khan told the court.

A councillor of Missri Khan Union Council Sheikh Muhammadi appeared before the court, and stated that he had met the detainee in the CIA centre on May 3. Earlier, Nazim Ajmal Khan of the union council also had recorded the same statement.

The court, showing its inability to deal with the case, directed the authorities concerned to dispose of the case early.

AG summoned: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday summoned the attorney general for Pakistan in five identical writ petitions challenging the detention of five Arab employees of a Kuwaiti NGO, Islamic Heritage Society.