PESHAWAR, Sept 18: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday directed the interior ministry to hold a high-powered meeting to decide about the return of Frontier Constabulary platoons to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Islamabad, Gilgit Baltistan and Karachi and said if that didn’t happen by Nov 6, it would issue an order for the same.

The interior secretary should chair the said meeting whose decision about how many platoons will return to the province should be communicated to the court, said the order issued by a bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaiser.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, which sought issuance of order for the return of FC platoons, saying their postings to tribal and federal areas was against the spirit of the law under which the force was created.It fixed the next hearing until Nov 6, asking the interior ministry to consult the law ministry and inform the court about the situation, which has emerged after the passage of the Constitution (Eighteenth) Amendment Act, especially about law and order.At the very outset, deputy attorney general Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand objected to the maintainability of the petition, saying under Article 184 of the Constitution, it was the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court if any dispute arose between the provincial and federal governments.

The bench overruled his objection, observing that the provincial government had approached the court for interpretation of the Frontier Constabulary Act, 1915, especially after the passage of the 18th amendment.

Deputy secretary of interior ministry Mohammad Murid and FC Headquarters official Mohammad Sohaib struggled to convince the court that posting of FC platoons to Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, Sindh and tribal areas along with security forces was in line with the law.

They said FC was under the administrative control of the interior ministry and therefore, it could be posted anywhere in the country.

The chief justice inquired why 48 platoons comprising around 2,000 personnel had been deputed in Islamabad on VIP duties when people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been bearing the brunt of militancy.

He asked the officials to inform where these 2,000 personnel were deputed.

The deputy secretary said FC personnel were deputed to embassies and offices of multinational companies.

The bench directed him to provide specific details in this respect on the next hearing.

The deputy secretary said whenever the province required FC platoons, they could be provided with them.

The chief justice observed that the security situation was so delicate in the province that the chief minister had raised the issue and his cabinet and the provincial assembly had passed resolutions for it, but to no avail.

The FC official said around 140 platoons had been secured by the army before being deployed in tribal areas.

The chief justice asked why those platoons were given to the army as FC could not deputed to tribal areas.

The official said the government had issued order for it.

The chief justice observed that FC was raised by British rulers for the buffer zone between the settled districts and tribal areas.

He added that when the force was raised from among the tribes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, then how it could be meant for the entire country.

The petitioner has claimed that currently, 294 FC platoons are operating outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa though the force is basically meant to protect the areas bordering Fata.

He added that around 180 platoons must be sent back to the province without delay.