PESHAWAR, Oct 23: Dismis-sing a writ petition, a two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday ruled that the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, is applicable to the Provin-cially Administered Tribal Areas (Pata).

The bench, comprising Justice Tariq Pervaiz and Justice Ijazul Hassan, observed that the act had been extended to Pata under the Constitution of 1962 and as it was not withdrawn, there was no need for extension of the law under the 1973 Constitution.

The petitioner, Haji Bahadur, an ex-contractor, was facing charges  of embezzlement in connivance with some officials of the forest department. An interim order was issued by the high court in his favour in 2000 following which proceedings against him and other persons by the anti-corruption establishment were stopped. The interim relief had affected dozens of anti-corruption cases in Pata as the petitioner had claimed that the act and rules framed thereunder were not extended to the provincial tribal areas.

Advocate Maazullah Barkandi appeared for the petitioner and argued that under the Constitution specific notification had to be issued for extension of a law to the federally and provincially administered tribal areas.

He said the anti-corruption law was extended to Pata after the promulgation of 1962 Constitution  which was abrogated later and the present constitution came into force in 1973.

Mr Barkandi contended that once the 1962 constitution was abrogated and  the new constitution came into force, it was mandatory on the government to extend the law afresh to Pata.

Additional Advocate-General Mussarat Hillali argued that as the law was extended to Pata and not withdrawn, there was no need for its extension afresh.