Lawyers to boycott courts tomorrow

The lawyers would not appear in courts in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Wednesday (tomorrow) to protest against the non-elevation of judges from the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to the Supreme Court, the K-P Bar Council announced on Monday.

According to a press release, the bar council said that a number of seats were vacant in the Supreme Court, adding that those vacant seats should be filled through elevating judges from PHC.

“Pakistan is a federation and the Supreme Court of Pakistan, being the apex constitutional court of the Federation, must have a proper representation of all the federating units,” the press release said.

The bar council noted that since 2017, there had been no elevation of judges from the K-P to the Supreme Court. It requested the Judicial Commission to resolve the issue immediately and redress the sense of deprivation of the province.

It added that in case any constitutional and legal issue arose between the Centre and the federating units or among the different federating units then a proper representation of the people of K-P was necessary in the Supreme Court to resolve such issue.

Announcing the bar’s plans for a boycott of the court proceedings across the province on March 1 (tomorrow), the K-P bar said that it would organise an all Pakistan lawyers convention on this issue very soon.

Earlier this month, a protest rally was held against the police lines attack by lawyers in Peshawar.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2023.