PESHAWAR: Lawyer leaders on Saturday announced that members of their community from across the country would stage a protest sit-in outside Parliament House in Islamabad on Dec 17 against a long delay in the passage of the proposed Lawyers Protection Act by parliament.

They demanded of the federal government to ensure early legislation for their protection.

The announcement was made after a meeting of the representatives of countrywide lawyers here.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council vice-chairman Mohammad Ali Khan Jadoon chaired the meeting, which was attended by representatives of bar councils from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, Balochistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Demand elevation of senior PHC judges to SC

Noted among participants were vice-chairmen of the Punjab, Balochistan and Islamabad bar councils Syed Jaffar Tayar Bukhari, Qasim Ali Gajizai and Syed Qamarul Hassan, respectively, member of the Azad Kashmir Bar Council Chaudhry Shaukat Aziz, KPBC executive committee’s chairman Ilyas Khan, PHC Bar Association president Rehmanullah Khan, and others.

The meeting adopted resolutions carrying demands by lawyer bodies.

It demanded the early convening of the Judicial Commission for Appointment of Judges by its chairman to recommend the appointment of two senior most judges of the Peshawar High Court to the Supreme Court against vacancies.

The participants also called for the early filling of the judges’ vacancies in Lahore, Islamabad and Sindh high courts.

They demanded that the sanctioned strength of the Peshawar High Court be increased by appointment of 10 more judges.

The participants urged the federal government to withdraw its review petition from the Supreme Court against the latter’s decision to quash a presidential reference against senior puisne judge, Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

According to KP Bar Council vice-chairman Mohammad Ali Jadoon and member Ahmad Farooq Khattak, the participants expressed concern about the growing incidents of violence against lawyers in the country and condemned the recent murder of senior legal practitioner Razaullah Khan in Peshawar.

They asked the government to ensure the early passage of the proposed Lawyers Protection Act by parliament.

The meeting also decided that bar associations would ban the entry of the leaders of political parties, which were blocking the passage of the Lawyers Protection Bill, to their premises and functions.

It demanded that the provincial governments and police chiefs appoint DIGs as focal persons over targeted killing of lawyers and other incidents of violence against them.

The participants urged the federal government to ban the post-retirement appointment of superior court judges and government officers to key posts to prevent the ‘waste’ of its resources.

A resolution adopted by the meeting demanded of the federal government to make amendments to the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act for the compulsory provision of funds to bar councils in the annual budget saying the move will make it easy for those councils to provide grants to bar associations in their respective provinces.

The participants also said to check corruption in the country, accountability mechanism should be made transparent and the assets of judges, officers of security forces and bureaucrats should be scrutinised for increase or decrease after appointments.

They demanded the Balochistan High Court’s circuit benches for Sibi, Khuzdar, Turbat and Loralai areas in the province. The meeting also called for the provision of stipends to trainee lawyers by both federal and provincial governments like doctors undergoing training as house officers.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2022