PESHAWAR: The lawyers continued a province-wide strike for the 20th day as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet’s meeting could not be held on Thursday for giving approval to a proposed bill for reversing some controversial amendments made in the Code of Civil Procedure last year.

A Peshawar High Court bench consisting of Justice Qaiser Rashid and Justice Lal Jan Khattak was informed by law secretary Masood Khan and additional advocate general Syed Sikandar Shah that the KP cabinet was scheduled to meet on Thursday and the proposed Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 2020, was also on the agenda.

However, they disclosed that as the chief minister had to go to Islamabad to attend an urgent meeting convened by the prime minister, the cabinet meeting was postponed.

The law secretary said the cabinet was likely to meet next week and the issue of amendments to the civil law was on top of the agenda.

On Nov 3, the bench was informed that representative committees of lawyers and the government had evolved consensus over the proposed bill for amending the Code of Civil Procedure and after approval by the cabinet the same would be tabled in the KP Assembly for its enactment.

Cabinet meeting on matter postponed as CM left for Islamabad

The bench was hearing a petition filed by KP Bar Council’s Vice Chairman Shahid Raza Malik requesting the court to declare as unconstitutional and against the principal of natural justice the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2019, through which drastic changes were made in the civil law last year.

The bench adjourned hearing into the case until Nov 9. The KP Bar Council has already extended its strike until Nov 7.

Besides Shahid Raza and KPBC executive committee chairman Shahid Qayyum Khattak, senior lawyers Mohammad Faheem Wali, Khalilullah Khalil, Hazrat Rehman Khan, Shahid Qayyum Khattak, Maulana Shamsul Haq and others appeared before the bench.

Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan told the law secretary that thousands of people had been suffering due to the lawyers’ strike.

He observed that litigants had been coming to different courts across the province from far-flung areas and returning without noteworthy proceedings in their cases.

The bench asked the secretary whether it was necessary for the government to take action and amend the law only after protests and strike by lawyers.

Shahid Raza said the lawyers had gone on a strike on the issue early in the year but they called it off after the government promised the reversal of controversial changes to the civil law.

He, however, said the government didn’t fulfil promise and the controversial changes remained part of the civil law.

On Thursday, the lawyers mostly remained away from proceedings before different courts, including the high court. The strike had begun on Oct 16 on the call of the KPBC.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2020