PESHAWAR: The lawyers on Wednesday boycotted courts across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including the Peshawar High Court, and decided to extend the strike for an indefinite period against the recent amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP) 1908 and the enactment of a provincial anti-narcotics law by the provincial government.

The call for strike was given by the KP Bar Council.

A joint meeting of the KP Bar Council and representatives of different district bar associations was held.

Pakistan Bar Council vice-chairman Syed Amjad Ali Shah, who attended the meeting, announced support for the protesting lawyers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The meeting unanimously decided that the strike would continue until the controversial amendments to the CCP were revoked and suitable amendments were made to the provincial anti-narcotics law. Last month, the lawyers had observed a strike from Dec 9 to 11 on the issue.

KP Bar Council’s vice-chairman Saeed Khan announced that the legal fraternity had rejected the controversial amendments and all members should abide by the decision of observing an indefinite strike. He said if any member was found violating the decision, strict action would be taken against him or her.

KP Bar Council says those not boycotting courts will face strict action

He announced that a joint meeting of KP Bar Council and representatives of bar associations would be held on Jan 15 in the council offices in which the future course of action would be decided.

The KP government had enacted the KP Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2019, last Oct through which several important changes were made to the colonial era law claiming that it would help provide speedy justice to litigants in civil cases.

Similarly, the KP Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 2019, was introduced repealing the federal Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997, in the province to the extent of cultivation, possession, selling, purchasing, delivery and transportation of narcotics.

The speakers told participants that through amendments to CCP, one forum of appeal against a judgment of civil judge was abolished and now instead of the district judge, an appeal would be filed in the high court.

They added that the amendments were a discrimination against the people of the province compared to those living in other provinces.

The speakers claimed that the high court would be further overburdened with those appeals, whereas the number of judges had not been increased.

Similarly, after the introduction of the new narcotics law in the province, the bail provision was removed in narcotics-related offences due to which an accused has to move the high court for getting bail instead of a special court.

Syed Amjad Shah said if the province’s lawyers requested, all 157 bar associations across the country would boycott courts in future.

He suggested the start of a campaign on social media to inform the people about controversial law amendments.

The PBC vice-chairman said the amendments in question engineered by certain NGOs overburdened poor litigants.

Peshawar High Court Bar Association president Abdul Lateef Afridi said members of the bar would abide by the decision of strike. He said the bar had given the strike call thrice but it had postponed the strike after the government promised to address its grievances.

Mr Afridi, however, said the government didn’t fulfil those commitments forcing lawyers into boycotting courts.

He said one of those amendments had declared that evidence in a civil case would be recorded by a commission and not by the court concerned, showing a lack of trust in courts.

The association president wondered if the expenses of those commissions would be paid by litigants or the government.

President of Peshawar District Bar Association Taimoor Ali Shah said the government had turned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into a laboratory, where it was testing new laws. He claimed that the chief minister had told the association leaders that he didn’t have powers to withdraw those amendments.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2020