PESHAWAR, Sept 26: Lawyers on Wednesday boycotted courts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa against the Peshawar High Court directives to the subordinate judiciary for disposing of by Sept 30 the cases filed before Dec 2000.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council had given the strike call.

Recently, the Supreme Court sent letters to all high courts for implementation of the 2009 National Judicial Policy (NJP) related to disposal of old cases.

The letters said initially, the deadline for disposal of old cases was Sept 30, 2011 but it was later revised many times before being fixed to July 31, 2012.

The Supreme Court pointed out to the Peshawar High Court in the letter that the examination of the monthly disposal reports for August revealed that even after the expiry of the deadline, 1,473 old cases continued to be pending with the district judiciary in the province.

In light of the said letter, PHC issued orders to all district and sessions judges on Sept 17 asking them to convey to the subordinate judiciary to dispose of the cases of the oldest category until Sept 30, saying failure to comply with the orders will lead to issuance of show cause notices to the relevant judges before action under the Efficiency and Disciplinary Rules.

The cases have been categorised as the oldest (those filed before Dec 2000), older (those filed before Dec 2005) and old (those filed before Dec 2008).

Lawyers mostly stayed away from courts, including PHC.

The boycott of courts also irked Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, who observed that the bar council should have hold a meeting with him if it had any problem with the policy.

A member of the council, who did not want to be named, told Dawn that the council was under immense pressure from different bar associations on the matter and therefore, it had to give a call for the boycott of courts. He said the current policy of the disposal of cases didn’t serve the purpose of justice as it was for speedy disposal of cases and not speedy dispensation of justice.

The council member said lawyers had been facing multiple problems due to the policy as judges had been conducting proceedings in these specific cases throughout the day, while other cases had been left out.

He added that lawyers engaged in those cases had to stay in the relevant court for the entire day and had no chance to appear before other courts.

In the day, the chief justice adjourned hearing into all cases to be heard by a two-member bench headed by him, observing the ultimate sufferer of such like strikes were the poor litigants. He said certain elements had been trying to sabotage the struggle made by lawyers for the independence of judiciary.

Later, the chief justice also met senior lawyers, including president of PHC Bar Association Abdul Lateef Afridi and Peshawar District Bar Association president Wakeel Zaman Khattak.

One participant said the presidents of the two associations told the chief justice that although they had reservations over the present policy, the strike was observed on the call of the bar council and not by any of the associations.

He added that the two assured the chief justice that they would meet members of bar council to resolve the matter amicably.

The participant said the chief justice expressed annoyance at the strike observing without having any meeting with him, the council was not justified in giving the call for the strike. He said the chief justice observed that efforts made by the judiciary for disposal of old cases was in the interest of litigants visiting courts for years.

He also quoted the chief justice as saying that the policy was framed by NJPMC and the high court had only communicated it to subordinate judiciary.