NA approves bill to extend SC, PHC’s jurisdiction to FATA

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Friday approved bill seeking to extend the jurisdiction of Supreme Court (SC) and Peshawar High Court (PHC) to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).

The bill moved by Minister for Law Chaudhry Mehmood Bashir Virk extends the jurisdiction of Supreme Court of Pakistan and Peshawar High Court to the federally administered tribal areas.

Speaking on the bill, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Abdul Qadir Baloch said credit goes to the present government for abolition of FCR and extending of the jurisdiction of superior courts to the tribal areas.

He said today all the political parties are united for the mainstreaming of tribal areas. He said the tribal areas will also be merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at an appropriate time as per the recommendation of the FATA reforms committee.

In his remarks, Leader of Opposition Khurshid Shah said that today we have taken another step to the mainstreaming of tribal areas.

Earlier, the house held discussion on situation arising out of the rape and murder of seven year old girl Zainab, in Kasur.

Opening the debate, Leader of Opposition Khurshid Shah said that the horrendous incident has aggrieved the entire country. He regretted that the police have so far failed to nab the culprit. He said besides arresting the culprit, the government needs to take steps to avoid recurrence of such chilling incidents in future.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohsin Shah Nawaz Ranjah urged the political parties to doing politics on the matter and rather sit together to chalk out a strategy to avert cases of child abuse. He said the present government has carried out legislation and declared child abuse and seduction as a crime. He said there is need to ensure speedy trials in such incidents.

Shireen Mazari said the murderers and rapists of children should be hanged publicly. Earlier, a meeting of the House Business Advisory Committee was held with Speaker of the National Assembly in the chair which decided that the current session of the National Assembly will continue till 25th of this month. The House will now meet again on Monday at 4pm.