PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council has claimed that the provincial government has agreed to defer the recent ‘controversial’ amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure for three months.

It, however, announced that the lawyers would continue boycotting courts across the province until the government tabled a bill in the provincial assembly for the purpose.

The lawyers continued to boycott the proceedings of courts across the province, including the Peshawar High Court, for eighth day on the call of the bar council against the amendments to CCP and the enactment of a provincial narcotics law.

The representatives of the KP Bar Council and different bar associations met here with council vice-chairman Saeed Khan in the chair.

They discussed the outcome of the Tuesday meeting between law minister Sultan Mohammad Khan and a lawyers’ delegation and decided not to call off the strike that began on Jan 8.

However, boycott of courts will continue until bill tabled in PA for the purpose

The meeting was attended by Peshawar High Court Bar Association president Abdul Lateef Afridi, Peshawar District Bar Association president Taimoor Ali Shah and others.

Bar council member Sareer Khan briefed participants about the meeting with the minister and claimed that the government’s representatives had assured the visitors that a bill would be tabled in the ongoing provincial assembly session for the deferment of the amendments to the CCP for three months.

He said it was suggested that the committees of the government and lawyers would discuss amendments to that law during that three-month time to evolve consensus over future changes to the law.

The council member also insisted that the minister also agreed to the amendments proposed by lawyers to the KP Control of Narcotics Control Act, 2019, and said a bill would be tabled in the ongoing assembly session for their incorporation in the new law.

He said the lawyers had observed a strike across the province last month for three days and as the government had hinted that the issue would be resolved, they didn’t continue with the strike but the government’s failure to act accordingly forced the bar council to give a call for an indefinite strike.

Following a discussion on the government’s proposals, the meeting decided that the lawyers would continue observing strike until a bill related to CCP was tabled in the assembly.

The government had enacted the KP Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2019, in Oct introducing several important changes to the colonial-era law amid claims that it would help provide speedy justice to litigants in civil cases.

Also, the government enacted the KP Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 2019, through which the Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997, was repealed within the province to the extent of cultivation, possession, selling, purchasing, delivery and transportation of narcotics.

The KP Bar Council claimed that through amendments to the CCP, one forum of appeal against a judgment of civil judge was abolished and instead of district judge appeal would be filed in the high court.

It added that the move was discrimination against the people of the province compared to those living in other provinces.

Similarly, after the introduction of the new narcotics law in the province, the bail provision was removed in the narcotics-related offences due to which an accused has to move the high court for bail instead of a special court.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2020