MUZAFFARABAD: The hearing of two clubbed petitions challenging the September 29 lockdown in Azad Jammu and Kashmir could not take place at the High Court on Friday due to the absence of both the petitioners’ counsel and the state’s top law officer.

The petitions, filed by six citizens, maintain that the lockdown called by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee was unlawful, amounted to “blackmailing tactics”, and posed a threat to law and order across the state.

When the case was taken up, the division bench comprising Senior Judge Syed Shahid Bahar and Justice Sardar Mohammad Ejaz Khan was informed that neither the counsel for the petitioners nor Advocate General Masood Iqbal Sheikh was present to plead their sides.

The bench also received a request from the Advocate General seeking exemption from appearance on the grounds that he had to attend a full court reference in honour of outgoing Supreme Court judge Khawaja Mohammad Nasim.

In the absence of both sides, the bench adjourned the proceedings until next week.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2025