PESHAWAR, April 22: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan on Thursday stressed the need for bringing the Federally Administered Tribal Areas fully under the constitutional cover to restore peace there.

“It is very unfortunate that the people of Fata have the right to elect their representatives but those representatives can legislate for the entire country except for tribal areas,” he said during the oath-taking ceremony of newly-elected cabinets of PHC Bar Association, PHCBA Bannu Bench, Karak District Bar Association, and Takhte Nusrati and Banda Daud Shah tehsil bar associations.

The chief justice proposed that Articles 246 and 247 be deleted from the Constitution to end discrimination against tribal people and address their prolonged misery.

He said the superior judiciary had no enmity with any individual or institution and had been striving for the rule of law.

“It is unacceptable to the judiciary that for poor people, there will be different yardstick of justice and for rich and influential, the yardstick will be different,” he said.

Justice Dost Mohammad said the judiciary had been confronting internal forces, which blocked the way to the implementation of the rule of law.

Without naming Pervez Musharraf, he said he (former military ruler) had twice suspended the Constitution but when he returned home from abroad, nobody raised any serious objection that his offence could be tried under Article 6 of the Constitution.

“It was your judiciary, which did not care for external and internal forces and in a firm way, laid hand on the said person and asked him to face charges and defend himself in a fair manner,” he said.

The chief justice expressed concern about the performance of forensic science laboratories and investigators in high-profile cases, saying the laboratories were not upgraded and investigators were not imparted proper training on how to investigate crime.He said recently, a team of foreign donors met him and he conveyed to it that it might be provided two or three experts from Scotland Yard, who could train investigators at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Judicial Academy.

Justice Dost Mohammad said there was a plan to set up a modern forensic science laboratory at the academy.

He said if these things were included in the priorities of the rulers, then no suspect could escape punishment.

The chief justice said corruption in society had increased alarming and the judiciary had been trying to check it. He added that the civil society and media should rise to the situation as the country was heading towards financial emergency.

Justice Dost Mohammad said a few months later, a superpower would be leaving the neighbouring state (Afghanistan) and that leading intellectuals had been foreseeing that like the past, there would be a big catastrophe and devastation and destruction of properties thereafter.

He stressed the need for the training of law-enforcement agencies keeping in view the emerging situation in the region.

The chief justice expressed concern about the role of the United Nations, saying it was created with the consent of all member states with the mandate to maintain peace across the world and prevent any state from aggression by any other state.

He, however, said the UN had turned hostage at the hand of some superpowers and that had a devastating effect.

Justice Dost Mohammad highlighted several developmental projects launched by the high court and said the court had been expending the scope of the judicial academy and that its FM radio station was launched lately.

He said he had been in contact with the government for legislation on establishment of mobile courts under the “Justice on Wheel Project’ in which judges would visit faraway villages to provide justice to the people on their doorstep.

Referring to the demands earlier made by PHCBA president Ishtiaq Ibrahim, the chief justice said in several districts and tehsils, work on judicial complexes would begin soon.

He said the barroom on the premises of the high court would also be expanded as in present shape, it could not cater to the growing needs of lawyers.

Earlier, the presidents of different bar associations, who took oath of their respective offices, also on the occasion, where lawyers from different districts showed up in large numbers.