Judicial policy row: K-P bar council to meet over CJ statement
CJ Khan says Afghans should be given proper share in interim government.
PESHAWAR:
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC) has called a meeting over a statement by the Peshawar High Court’s chief justice (CJ), in which he asked lawyers to stop holding strikes.
CJ Khan had said that strikes only overburden the lower judiciary and delay cases.
“Some lawyers have moved an application to call a meeting of the KPBC on October 3 and devise a strategy for further course of action,” said KPBC Vice-Chairman Fazal Tawad. Lawyers are against the judicial policy of disposing all pending cases by September 30, he added.
A member of the KPBC familiar with the matter said the lawyers’ reaction has been putting pressure on the bar council.
“Meetings have been called in different bars of the province. However, we have stopped them from holding meetings as once a decision is taken by the statutory body (KPBC), district bars will be informed and asked to follow the directive,” he said.
Earlier, CJ Khan had condemned a strike called by the KPBC on September 25.
Judicial academy address
Speaking on human rights and Afghanistan, CJ Khan said that the only way out of the Afghan crisis is through negotiations and giving Afghans a proper share in the interim government.
He was addressing an audience during a human rights programme arranged by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at the K-P judicial academy on Saturday.
K-P residents have been hosting Afghan refugees and helping them for the last two decades, even before the UN stepped in to rescue them, CJ Khan said. The situation in Afghanistan is stable enough that a number of Pakistanis and Indians are now working there, he added.
He requested the UNHCR to assist Fata residents living at camps for internally displaced persons.
The government of Pakistan has set a December 31 deadline for repatriation of refugees. Anyone found after the deadline will be jailed. The PHC on September 19 also ordered not to extend the deadline.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2012.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC) has called a meeting over a statement by the Peshawar High Court’s chief justice (CJ), in which he asked lawyers to stop holding strikes.
CJ Khan had said that strikes only overburden the lower judiciary and delay cases.
“Some lawyers have moved an application to call a meeting of the KPBC on October 3 and devise a strategy for further course of action,” said KPBC Vice-Chairman Fazal Tawad. Lawyers are against the judicial policy of disposing all pending cases by September 30, he added.
A member of the KPBC familiar with the matter said the lawyers’ reaction has been putting pressure on the bar council.
“Meetings have been called in different bars of the province. However, we have stopped them from holding meetings as once a decision is taken by the statutory body (KPBC), district bars will be informed and asked to follow the directive,” he said.
Earlier, CJ Khan had condemned a strike called by the KPBC on September 25.
Judicial academy address
Speaking on human rights and Afghanistan, CJ Khan said that the only way out of the Afghan crisis is through negotiations and giving Afghans a proper share in the interim government.
He was addressing an audience during a human rights programme arranged by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) at the K-P judicial academy on Saturday.
K-P residents have been hosting Afghan refugees and helping them for the last two decades, even before the UN stepped in to rescue them, CJ Khan said. The situation in Afghanistan is stable enough that a number of Pakistanis and Indians are now working there, he added.
He requested the UNHCR to assist Fata residents living at camps for internally displaced persons.
The government of Pakistan has set a December 31 deadline for repatriation of refugees. Anyone found after the deadline will be jailed. The PHC on September 19 also ordered not to extend the deadline.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2012.