PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council on Thursday endorsed the decision of the Pakistan Bar Council to stage a sit-in on Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue on Apr 25 against different decisions of the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee as the lawyers boycotted courts across the province.

The lawyers mostly remained away from court proceedings in different cities, especially Peshawar.

The lawyers have been observing boycott of courts across the country on every Thursday against restrictions imposed by the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee on the powers of judicial officers as ‘ex-officio Justice of Peace’ under sections 22-A and 22-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

A meeting of KP Bar Council chaired by its vice-chairman, Saeed Khan, was held here, which called upon the Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khan Khosa to revoke its decision of restricting powers of district and sessions judges to act as ‘ex-officio justice of peace’.

KP Bar Council supports call for Islamabad sit-in

The meeting was attended by presidents and general secretaries of bar associations from across the province. The meeting was also attended by vice-chairman of Pakistan Bar Council Syed Amjad Shah and chairman of the KP Bar Council’s executive committee Haq Nawaz.

By unanimously adopting a resolution, the participants expressed reservations about speedy trials by model courts and demanded that the decision of model courts be revoked.

They said the curtailing of the powers of judicial officers under Section 22-A of CrPC should be reserved.

The participants asked the chief justice of Pakistan to clearly define parameters of suo moto powers exercised by the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.

They demanded that Article 209 of the Constitution related to the Supreme Judicial Council be implemented.

The meeting also condemned the grant of powers of issuing succession certificate to Nadra instead of civil courts and demanded the decision’s withdrawal.

The NJPMC had made certain decisions last month regarding the powers exercised by district and sessions judges under sections 22-A and 22-B of CrPC.

The districts and sessions judges (DSJ) and additional district and sessions judges (ADSJ) have been exercising powers of ‘Justice of Peace’ under sections 22-A (6) and 25 CrPC since the law was amended in 2002.

Under that provision, the judicial officers are empowered to order registration of an FIR over a complaint if the relevant police officer declines to register it. They can also order transfer of investigation of a case from one police officer to another.

The NJPMC in its meeting had said that since the Police Complaint Redressal Mechanism, as per recommendations of the Police Reforms Committee, had been operationalised at district level in all over the country, which was headed by SP (complaints), applications filed under sections 22-A of CrPC might not be entertained by the courts unless they’re accompanied by the decision of the relevant district SP (complaints).

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2019