An indefinite strike started by the lawyers community across the province from Jan 8 will continue for many more days as a sitting of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly scheduled for Jan 27, in which a bill has to be tabled by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for deferring certain recent amendments made in the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), has been adjourned to Feb 7.

With the continuation of strike the sufferings of litigants, especially those who are in prisons and awaiting hearing of their bail petitions and appeals against convictions, are far from over.

It was expected that in the assembly’s meeting on Jan 27 (today) the provincial government would table the required bill for deferring the controversial amendments in CPC for three months, but the abrupt move of adjourning the session to Feb 7 by the speaker has left different stakeholders in a state of surprise.

The decision of starting an indefinite strike was taken on Jan 8 in a general body meeting of the KP Bar Council that was attended by elected members as well as office-bearers of different bar associations, including the Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA).

The reasons which forced the lawyers to go on an indefinite strike were the amendments made in CPC and introduction of a provincial anti-narcotics law by the government. Last month, the lawyers had observed a three-day strike from Dec 9 to 11 on the same issue.

“We were expecting that the required bill will be tabled in the assembly on Monday (today), but now we came to know that the sitting has been adjourned to Feb 7. In such a situation our strike will continue,” said newly-elected vice-chairman of the KP Bar Council Shahid Raza Malik.

He said that the decision of strike was taken by the general body of the council and under the rules even the general body could not reverse the decision before passage of six months or acceptance of the demands.

Shahid Raza said that the strike was started in the interest of litigants as the amendments in CPC and the provincial narcotics law had overburdened them and in many of the matters they had now to approach the high court instead of subordinate courts.

He told Dawn that he would consult other members and senior lawyers for convening a meeting of the council for discussing the situation. He said that he would also meet KP Advocate General Shumail Ahmad Butt, who is also chairman of the bar council, for discussing the matter.

The KP Government had in October enacted KP Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2019, through which several important changes were made in the colonial-era law claiming that it would help in providing speedy justice to litigants in civil nature cases.

Similarly, the government had also enacted KP Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 2019, through which the federal Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997, was repealed within the province to the extent of cultivation, possession, sale, purchase, delivery and transportation of narcotics.

The legal fraternity believes that both these steps taken by the government are in conflict with the interest of litigants. The lawyers claim that through amendments in CPC one forum of appeal against a judgment of civil judge was abolished and now instead of district judge the appeal has to be filed in the high court. They said that such amendments were not introduced in other provinces and thus it was discrimination with the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

They claim that the high court would be further overburdened with these appeals, whereas the number of judges had not been increased.

In the new narcotics law, bail provision has not been given due to which now an accused arrested in narcotics-related offence has to move the high court instead of special court.

Following this enactment the high court has now been flooded with petitions of arrested suspects in narcotics cases seeking their release on bail.

Interestingly, some of these suspects were charged with possessing a small quantity of narcotics of four or five grams, but had to remain behind bars for many weeks.

After negotiations between the lawyers’ representatives and government a few days ago it was decided that a bill will be tabled in the KP Assembly for deferring the CPC amendments for three months and during that period committees of lawyers and government representatives would evolve consensus over what sorts of amendments should be made in the law.

About the KPCNSA, it was decided that amendments would be made in it to remove lacunas and include bail provision in narcotics-related offences.

The KP cabinet in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Jan 23 gave approval for the two bills for deferment of the CPC amendments and making suitable changes in the narcotics laws. However, the lawyers continued their strike as the decision of bar council was that it would continue till tabling of the bills in the assembly.

“Population of different prisons in the province has increased manifold as bail petitions and appeals of scores of prisoners could not be decided due to strike,” said Advocate Shabbir Hussain Gigyani. He said that he was having five bail petitions and some appeals of clients fixed for hearing on Monday (today), but those would be adjourned now.

Presently, a writ petition filed by advocate Farooq Afridi challenging the amendments in CPC and another petition filed by Mr Gigyani against unavailability of bail provision in the narcotics law have been pending before the high court.

Some of the lawyers believe that instead of delaying the issue the government should have promulgated ordinances for addressing the lawyers’ grievances so that the strike could have been ended.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2020