Senator seeks amendments in FATA Bill

F.P. Report

Islamabad: Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the piecemeal extension of the jurisdiction of SC and PHC at the whim of the federal government as proposed in the Bill passed by the National Assembly amounted to hoodwinking the people and smacked of something sinister and asked the government to come out clean on it.

He was speaking at a seminar on the proposed legislation to extend the jurisdiction of superior courts to FATA organized by Bhutto Foundation at the national press club in Islamabad today.

Just like FATA the superior courts initially also did not have jurisdiction over the provincially administered tribal areas (PATA) including Chitral, Dir, Swat, Malakand. In 1973 jurisdiction of superior courts was extended to these areas with immediate effect and without requiring official notification, he said.

Why the scheme is was designed differently now, he asked adding ‘there is a lurking suspicion of some foul play’.

He suspected that the piecemeal extension maybe employed to pave way for Shakil Afridi’s release under foreign pressure. I am not against Afridi’s release because he has been wrongly sentenced under FCR for allegedly helping Mangal Bagh and not for locating Osama Bin Laden, he said. However it is wrong to hoodwink tribal people with false hopes and vague promises, he said. He said that an amendment Bill had already been moved in the Senate for the immediate applicability of the proposed legislation throughout tribal areas. We will also push for a constitutional amendment Bill to take away the legislative powers in respect of FATA from the President and vest it in the Parliament, he said.

Peace and development in tribal areas will remain elusive until the elephant in the black hole of FATA is identified and reined in he said and pleading for a review of Pakistan’s Afghan policy. Afghanistan must be treated as a sovereign and independent country and not as Pakistan’s fifth province.

He also demanded immediate demolition of the existing system of levy and collection of taxes, cess, levies and rahdari by the political agents in tribal areas which he said was “arbitrary, illegal and a tool for corruption”.

Poor people are subjected to illegal tax on transportation of every merchandize of daily use in what he said was a lucrative business for some  and demanded an end to it. He also called for the audit by auditor General of the public spending by the civil-military bureaucratic complex in FATA.