PESHAWAR: Lawyers boycottedthe courts across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday to protest the non-elevation of the judges of the Peshawar High Court to the Supreme Court during the last couple of years.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC) had given the call for strike on Monday insisting that though a number of seats were vacant in the Supreme Court, which should be filled through the elevation of judges from the PHC, no such elevation was made by the Judicial Commission for the Appointment of Judges.

Lawyers mostly stayed away from courts, including the high court at its principal seat in Peshawar and benches at Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Swat and Abbottabad.

Justice Yahya Afridi of the Supreme Court was elevated from the PHC in June 2018. Thereafter, no Peshawar High Court judge was elevated to the apex court.

The KPBC said it would convene the All Pakistan Lawyers’ Representatives Convention in the provincial capital in near future.

It demanded that vacancies at the Supreme Court be filled through elevation from the PHC as Pakistan was a federation and the Supreme Court, being its apex constitutional court, should have proper representation of all federating units.

The council said in case of any constitutional or legal issue arising between the centre and federating units or among federating units, proper representation of KP was necessary in the apex court to resolve it.

It regretted that even the pending petition of late PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth on the issue of elevation hadn’t been decided by the apex court.

The council demanded early convening of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan meeting under Article 175-A of the Constitution to resolve that constitutional issue to minimise the sense of deprivation among the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and senior puisne judge Justice Roohul Amin Khan will lay down robes by the end of the current month, whereas Justice Musarrat Hilali will retire in Aug this year.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2023