PESHAWAR: The lawyers staged a protest demonstration here on Saturday against exorbitant electricity and gas bills and escalating prices of essential commodities, including petroleum products, and announced that they would observe a strike on the issue tomorrow (Monday).

The Peshawar Bar Association held a general body meeting with its president, Ishfaq Ahmad Khalil, in the chair.

The participants included members of the association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council and Peshawar High Court Bar Association.

Also, the PHCBA, with the approval of the KPBC, announced the boycott of all courts in the province on Sept 4.

Peshawar Bar Association holds meeting over inflated power, gas bills

Participants of the general body meeting later took out a rally from district courts to the Rehman Baba Chowk near the provincial assembly’s building via the Khyber Road.

The meeting was addressed by the PBA office-bearers and members, who warned the government that if inflated electricity and natural gas bills weren’t withdrawn and petroleum prices weren’t reduced, lawyers would begin a protest movement across the province that would later be extended to other parts of the country.

The speakers said lawyers won’t tolerate “oppressive” policies of the government and would begin a protest movement on the pattern of their 2007 agitation against a military ruler for the supremacy of the Constitution and upholding the rule of law.

They said that inflation had made people’s life miserable and that they’re committing suicide out of frustration.

The speakers said that billions of rupees had been spent on the perks and privileges of the privileged class of people with the common man bearing that burden.

Mr Khalil said the government shouldn’t pursue “oppressive” policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund.

Earlier in the day, the PHCBA requested the KPBC to announce a strike of lawyers in the province for Sept 4 against inflation and exorbitant electricity and gas bills.

A letter was sent by PHCBA secretary general Lajbar Khan Khalil to KPBC vice-chairman Zar Badshah Khan for the purpose.

In the letter, Mr Khalil said that the executive council of the bar association called for the complete strike by lawyers across the province to protest the exorbitant increase in the prices of electricity, petroleum products and essential items, and the ongoing “constitutional crisis” in the country.

The PHCBA’s secretary general later issued a news release about the strike on Sept 4.

On the call of the KPBC, lawyers earlier observed a strike across the province on Aug 31 against price hike and excessive electricity bills.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2023