PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Thursday asked the lawyers to accept his jirga to resolve their ongoing tussle with the provincial bureaucracy.

Mr Khan, who appeared before a Peshawar High Court bench in connection with his transit bail application, also met lawyers’ leaders and said that he had brought a jirga to them to resolve the issue arising out of an incident between a senior lawyer and additional assistant commissioner, Peshawar Cantt, some days ago.

The exchange, which occurred on the night of May 28 between the lawyer and the official led to the torture and registration of FIR against the lawyer, has since snowballed into a crisis, pitting the lawyers and bureaucracy against each other.

KP lawyers are on a strike since then and the government officials are also observing a token strike.

Asks legal fraternity to accept his jirga

Mr Khan asked the lawyers to accept his jirga as issues were resolved through jirgas in Pashtun tradition.

Peshawar High Court Bar Association president Rehmanullah Khan said on this occasion that they would take their fraternity into confidence on this issue before formally responding to the chief minister’s jirga, but they also had some conditions.

Lawyers on this occasion asked the chief minister to take action against the responsible officials.

Separately, another statement issued here said that all the Provincial Management Service and Pakistan Administrative Service officials and civil servants belonging to different formations and the All Employees Coordination Council continued to observe the symbolic strike throughout the province by wearing black armbands.

“We stand by our demand for physical and legal protection in the dispensation of our official duties. It is not only our basic right, but also important for civil servants to carry out the executive functions in their true spirit which will ensue good governance and efficient public service delivery,” it said.

The statement said that they looked forward to all the stakeholders for a just solution to the incident of the attack on the Deputy Commissioner’s Office and unlawful action against the assistant commissioner.

The statement said that the steps taken by the government were appreciated, yet it was emphasised that the civil servants would only be satisfied once the protective measures were notified and made operative.

It said that the civil servants decided to carry on with the token protest till June 14, 2022, without compromising public service delivery.

Published in Dawn,June 10th, 2022