PESHAWAR: The lawyers boycotted courts across the province for the second consecutive day on Tuesday asking the government to withdraw the recent amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure and make appropriate changes to the recently-introduced anti-narcotics law.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council had given a strike call for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The strike decision was made during a meeting of the representatives of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association and district and tehsil bar associations here on Saturday.

The provincial government had enacted in Oct the KP Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2019, making several changes to the colonial era law claiming that it will help provide speedy justice to litigants in civil nature cases.

It also introduced the KP Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 2019, which repealed the federal Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997, in the province to the extent of cultivation, possession, selling, purchasing, delivery and transportation of narcotics.

A joint general body meeting of the PHCBA and Peshawar District Bar Association was informed that a conference of provincial lawyers would be held on Dec 14 to decide the future course of action on the matter.

PHCBA president Abdul Lateef Afridi chaired the meeting, which rejected amendments to the CCP and narcotics law saying they will create complications for litigants.

The meeting was addressed by member of the KP Bar Council Maulana Shamsul Haq, president of PDBA Taimoor Ali Shah, PHCBA general secretary Abid Ali Khan.

Unanimously adopting a resolution, the participants said by amending the CCP, the provincial government had deprived the residents of their right to first appeal against a decree of civil judge, so the litigants would have to file an appeal with the high court instead of the district judge.

They added that those amendments would increase workload on high court already facing the backlog problem.

The participants demanded of the government to withdraw those amendments.

The meeting also expressed concern about the recently-introduced KP Control of Narcotics Substance Act, saying the legislation has abolished the right of an accused to file bail petition with the trial court, so an accused had to move the high court for bail even in a petty nature narcotics case.

It added that not only the high court workload would increase but also the prison population would increase as the accused in minor narcotics cases would remain behind bars.

The participants asked the government to make suitable amendments to the law and include bail provision in it.

They also demanded that 10 more judges be appointed to the high court following the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The participants offered Fateha for the acting chief justice of Federal Shariat Court, Fida Mohammad Khan and senior lawyer Ghulam Nabi Khan, who passed away recently.

The meeting decided to name one of the bar rooms as ‘Ghulam Nabi Khan Hall’.

The participants paid tribute to the deceased for vehemently advocating the lawyer issues.

Also, the lawyers boycotted courts and staged rallies in Timergara, Alpuri and Khar against changes to the laws.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2019