MANSEHRA: The district bar association has announced the boycott of courts across Hazara division against the registration of an FIR against former Supreme Court judge Ejaz Afzal Khan and his family members over a firing incident here and warned that protests would spread across the province if the FIR was not withdrawn within a week.

The association met here on Tuesday with its president, Bilal Khan, in the chair.

It unanimously passed a resolution demanding the quashing of FIR registered against retired Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, his son Saif Ali Khan and brother Sajjad Afzal Khan on the directions of the National Assembly’s standing committee on law.

The resolution read, “This forum wants the withdrawal of this FIR lodged on false charges against its two respectable members and a former justice of the Supreme Court within a week.”

Former member of the KP Bar Council Shahjehan Khan Swati told reporters that the members of the provincial bar council, who attended in the meeting,decided about the boycott of courts across Hazara division today (Wednesday) against the registration of FIR against the former Supreme Court judge and his relatives on behalf of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MNA Mohammad Sajjad Awan, the elder brother of Mohammad Safdar, the son-in-law of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

He said MNA Sajjad had moved the police for the registration of FIRbut the latter refused to do so insisting the land dispute didn’t lead to the firing.

The lawyer leader said the lawmaker later moved the National Assembly’s standing committee on law,which ordered the registration of the sought-after FIR.

He said the forum decided that if the FIR wasn’t quashed within a week,the scope of protests would be widened across the province.

In the FIR, MNA Sajjad Awan claimed that the gunmen of the former judge along with his son and brother opened fire as a wall was being construction around a piece of land measuring 10 kanals owned by his brother.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2021