January 19, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 09, 1429

PESHAWAR, Jan 18: Due to lawyers’ continuous boycott of superior courts, judges of the Peshawar High Court and lawyers seem to be on collision course as scores of cases were decided during the last couple of days in absence of counsel concerned.

The judges while disposing of various cases, mostly bail petitions and criminal appeals, maintained that these had been decided on merit and not due to non-prosecution, but lawyers said that without hearing the counsel the court should not have decided the cases.

On Friday, some enraged lawyers in the high court bar room asked PHC Bar Association president Abdul Lateef Afridi to take a decision in this regard.

“We are waiting for the decision of our association following which we would not hesitate from taking any extreme step,” said one of the lawyers.

A meeting of bar associations of the province held here on Jan 15 had taken notice of the issue and had warned that if the judges of the PHC continued to dismiss their cases in their absence, they would be forced to take extreme steps, including putting locks on courtrooms.

It is learnt that a delegation comprising senior advocates Abdul Sattar Khan, Barrister Baachaa, Lal Jan Khattak and Shoukat Ali visited high court registrar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and apprised him about the anxiety prevailing among lawyers.

According to one of the delegation members, the registrar told them to meet Chief Justice Tallat Qayyum Qureshi. However, he said, they would not meet the chief justice because they considered that his appointment was not in accordance with the Constitution.

Meanwhile, the PHCBA on Friday suspended the membership of a woman lawyer who had appeared before a high court bench despite lawyers’ boycott of superior courts. It also banned her entry in the bar room.

The lawyer, Sakina Fida, has been asked to clarify her position by Jan 22.