GILGIT: The six-day-long protest sit-in of Gilgit-Baltistan lawyers outside the Chief Minister’s House ended on Saturday after the government assured them that their key demands would be accepted.

The Gilgit-Baltistan Bar Council, GB Supreme Court Bar Association, GB High Court Bar Association and District Bar Associations had jointly given the call for protest.

HCBA Secretary General Advocate Islamuddin told Dawn that lawyers in the region had been protesting for the past 10 months, boycotting court proceedings and holding rallies. They had also blocked the River View Road.

The protesting lawyers said they had been demanding their rights, including the long-delayed induction of judges in the GB Supreme Appellate Court, the establishment of special courts such as family and consumer courts, advertisement of vacant civil judge posts, and the separation of judicial magistrate from civil judge positions in line with practice elsewhere in the country, with appointments made from the legal fraternity on merit.

The legal fraternity sought judicial reforms, appointments and court expansion

They also demanded financial grants and allotment of plots to GB lawyers, appointments of legal advisers in government and non-government organisations, extension of the Lawyers Protection Act to GB, and separation of the offices of prosecutor general and advocate general.

A delegation of lawyers met GB Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan on Friday to discuss the issues. Senior lawyer Asadullah Khan, who led the delegation, said the lawyers also expressed reservations about the appointment of retired judges in the GB Supreme Appellate Court.

He said judges elevated from the GB Chief Court to the GB Supreme Appellate Court should not hear cases they had previously adjudicated in the Chief Court. He added that lawyers also demanded the appointment of judges to vacant posts in the GB Supreme Appellate Court from within the legal fraternity on merit.

According to him, the chief minister agreed to send a summary to the prime minister regarding the appointment of lawyers as judges in the GB Supreme Appellate Court, as well as to the federal government for creating new positions for law officers in GB.

“The GB chief minister also agreed to implement other demands that fall within the GB government’s domain,” said Mazhar Hussain Advocate, president of the Gilgit District Bar. He said that the delay in appointing judges in the GB Supreme Appellate Court, GB Chief Court and lower courts had badly affected the delivery of justice.

He added that GB lawyers’ demands were in the interest of the general public, pointing out that no judges had been appointed to the GB Supreme Appellate Court for the last eight years, leaving thousands of important cases pending. He said the lawyers’ movement had become an example of unity.

“The lawyers have proven that they will not hesitate to make any sacrifice for the rule of law and justice,” he said, adding that appointments in the higher and subordinate judiciary, establishment of new courts, and creation and filling of posts for law officers were the main points of the lawyers’ charter of demands.

After the government accepted the demands, Advocate Amjad Hussain, a member of the GB Assembly, announced the decisions at the sit-in venue. He said the GB lawyers had been struggling for the last 10 months and that their demands had now been accepted.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2025