PESHAWAR: The lawyers’ community on Tuesday observed province-wide strike to protest the deteriorating law and order situation and killing of the family members of a Peshawar High Court lawyer in the restive Kurram district.

The strike call was given by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council a day earlier wherein it had also given the government and its functionaries, including the chief secretary and the police chief, a week’s deadline to take remedial measures to improve the situation, otherwise, the lawyers’ fraternity would be forced to convene a meeting to chart their next course of action.

The lawyers mostly stayed away from proceedings before different courts including the PHC and its subordinate courts.

The KP Bar Council vice-chairman Sadiq Ali Mohmand and chairman executive committee Syed Taimur Ali Shah have voiced their concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Kurram and other southern districts, and said that the loss of lives in militant attacks was a failure of the government and law enforcement agencies.

They said that family members of PHC lawyer Noor Wali Muqbal lost their lives in a militant attack in Kurram.

They said that government and its institutions had failed to perform their duty of protecting the lives of the public and were only trying to protect themselves.

Besides, they said, attacks on judiciary in southern districts of the province were an attempt to paralyse the judicial system.

They alleged that both the provincial government and law enforcement agencies were engaged in politics and leg-pulling, which was resulting into loss of lives in KP in general and in southern districts in particular.

The bar council has also condemned the militant attack on Bannu Police Lines.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2024