No hearing into Dr Shakil's plea as Fata tribunal non-functional.

PESHAWAR -- The petition of Dr Shakil Afridi against the upholding of his conviction by an appellate forum for having links with banned outfits wasn't heard on Tuesday as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas tribunal has been non-functional for around eight months.

An official of the tribunal, which became non-functional after the promulgation of the Fata Interim Governance Regulation (FIGR) 2018, fixed Apr 4 for the next hearing.

Dr Shakil's lawyer Qamar Nadeem Afridi told Dawn that as the three-member tribunal, which was the third and last judicial forum under the erstwhile Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), had become non-functional, no proceedings could take place.

Lawyer hints at moving PHC against client's conviction

He said after consultation with Abdul Lateef Afridi, the lead counsel for Dr Shakil, they were likely to file a petition with the Peshawar High Court on the matter as there existed no possibility of the revival of the Fata tribunal after the enactment of the Constitution (Twenty-fifth Amendment) Act, 2018, through which tribal agencies were merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He claimed that for the last two months, the government had not been allowing even his close family members to meet him in the Sahiwal high security prison, where he had been detained.

The Fata tribunal comprised chairman Sange Marjan Khan and members Hussainzada Khan and Atif Nazir.

On May 28, 2018, the country's president promulgated the FIGR abolishing the FCR.

However, there was no mention of the tribunal in the new law and even it didn't suggest what would be the fate of the cases pending with the tribunal. Since then, the tribunal has been non-functional and has been awaiting the government notification regarding its fate.

The FCR commissioner, which is the appellate forum under the FCR, had upheld on Mar...