The emeragence of effective judicial system for tribal areas: an expected aftermath of the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Abstract

This thesis shows that Federally Administrated Tribal Area (FATA), which is included explicitly as a territory of Pakistan under Article 1 of the Constitution of Pakistan (1973), still lacks an effective or proper judicial system to redress grievances of its people. In comparison to other parts of the country, FATA has ineffective judicial system to ensure full protection of fundamental rights of its people, which are enshrined and protected under supreme law of the country, the Constitution of 1973. Currently, FATA’s judicial mechanism is functioning under the British made law, the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR), which rather protecting, in fact, violating basic rights of people of FATA. This issue can be resolved, to a large extent, by merging FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and bringing it into the mainstream political and judicial system of Pakistan. Considering the integration of FATA with KP, the government has proposed to replace FCR with the Tribal Area Rewaj bill (2017). The intended Rewaj bill will likely bring improvement to the judicial system of FATA. However, its finalization and application is still pending. Further, the Rewaj bill needs to be reviewed and modified to a limited extent, to make it more effective and efficient in fully addressing concerns of FATA regarding its judicial system.