Landikotal officials marked new history

LANDIKOTAL: Officials of the Landikotal Political administration marked a new history by converted an old jirga hall into  a courtroom where they started exclusive Friday court proceedings in order to tackle cases pending for a long time. 
 A simple opening ceremony of the new courtroom was held here in the Landikotal official compound which was attended by scores of local elders and officials. Landikotal assistant Political Agent,Muhammad Tayyab Abdullah, formally  inaugurated the courtroom.Giving the details of the new step been taken told The News that the old jirga hall had been converted into a courtroom and he was personally supervising its working on a weekly basis. "Cases pendency was enormous and thus we started for the first time regular court hearings on every Friday in order to dispose off long awaited pending cases on a regular and speedy basis", he remarked. He said that the decade long militancy had affected the traditional tribal jirga that had played  its important role in peaceful  settlement of local disputes.Tayyab said that they would encourage and reactive the traditional  jirga system to share cooperation with the political administration in settlement of pending disputes. He said that now jirga members will set in the court, summon the contesting parties and the court setting will create a proper decorum for its proceedings. 
 The APA hoped that it will provide relief to the litigants who had been waiting for long time for disposal of their cases. "The jirga members and ordinary tribesmen would know the importance of the court proceedings and it will also help build a confidence of ordinary people in the working of such courts", he explained. 
Meanwhile, fifteen different cases including a cases of murder,pending since long, were heard by the APA/Additional District Magistrate(ADM) and gave his verdicts. 
Lauding the local administration initiative, a local elders and civil society members appriciated such step taken by the oficials.Local elder Muhammad Amin said it will help in speedy disposal of cases pending for a long time.  He said that the move will also restore and enhance the confidence of local residents in the traditional institution of jirga.  Malik Pervez Shinwari thanked the local administration for allowing the local elders to use the new jirga hall for conducting all types of jirgas and resolving local issues.  
However, Farhad Shinwari,a local journalist,while commenting on the political administration's stance of setting up the special Friday court said that construction and conversions of buildings into courtrooms could not provide speedy justice to the people.He however urged the officials to hear the long awaited cases which he said had been red-tapped  for the last fifty years or more. "Until and unless a single person holds  judiciary and executive powers in Fata the people would not get speedy justice at the door steps",Farhad remarked