PESHAWAR: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas Tribunal on Monday adjourne d hearing into Dr Shakil Afridi`s petition another time against the upholding of his conviction by an appellate forum for having links with a banned militant outfit.

The adjournment until May 31 comes as the state prosecutor fails to turn up before the tribunal yet again to contest the case. The tribunal, the third and final judicial forum available under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, comprised chairman Sange Marjan Khan and members Hussainzada Khan and Atif Nazir.

Qamar Nadeem Afridi, lawyer for Dr Shakil, told Dawn that nobody appeared on behalf of the government in the hearing and therefore, the case didn`t make any progress.

On Mar 15, 2014, the FCR commissioner, the appellate forum under the FCR, had upheld the conviction of Dr Shakil for being linked to a banned militant organisation in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency but reduced his original prison term slapped by the assistant political agent`s court from 33 years to 23 years and that of the Rs320,000 fine to Rs220,000.

In the current revision petition, Dr Shakil has challenged the commissioner`s decision.

The petition has been pending with the tribunal for over three years without seeing any noteworthy progress.

The tribunal also adjourned hearing into a petition of Khyber Agency`s administration against the reduction of Dr Shakil`s sentence by the commissioner.

Initially, the administration didn`t produce the relevant records despite being given repeated notices by the tribunal but last year, it did produce records. However, the case has been pending mostly due to the government`s failure to appoint a prosecutor for the case.

Dr Shakil was taken into custody in May 2011by intelligence agencies on the suspicion of arranging a fake vaccination campaign at the behest of the American CIA in Abbottabad for tracing Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

However, he was not convicted by the trial court on that charge.

The assistant political agent, who is also the additional district magistrate of Bara tehsil, convicted him on May 23, 2012 for involvement in anti-state activities by supporting the Barabased Lashkar-i-Islam, and sentenced him on different counts to a total of 33-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs320,000.

The petitioner, Dr Shal(il, claimed that he was denied the right to fair trial and was convicted by the assistant political agent on `flimsy grounds ` He said the FCR commissioner had ignored several facts while upholding his conviction.

The petitioner said earlier, the tribunal sent the case back to the commissioner for clarifying certain points, but instead of clarifying them, the commissioner upheld the APA`s decision. Bureau Report