PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has set aside the suspension of licences of two senior lawyers by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC), respectively, by declaring the action illegal.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Wiqar Ahmad allowed four petitions, two each by lawyers Shabbir Hussain Gigyani and Ali Azim Afridi, whose licences were recently suspended by the PBC and KPBC respectively on Oct 8.

Initially, the membership of Mr Gigyani was suspended by the Peshawar Bar Association. Later, the appeal committee of the PBC suspended his licence for appearing for an accused police officer, Syed Behramand Shah, charged with killing of a young lawyer in Charsadda, despite a resolution of the PHC Bar Association restraining lawyers from appearance for the said accused.

Similarly, the licence of Mr Afridi was suspended by the KPBC for appearing before the courts during strikes whose calls were given by the council and PHCBA. Mr Afridi had also appeared for Mr Gigyani in one of his cases.

The KPBC had alleged that the act of Mr Afridi was against the unity and clear directives of the bar council.

Declares PBC, KPBC’s action illegal

Both petitioners contended that the impugned orders were issued in violation of two high court judgements, delivered in 2023 and 2025, to stop lawyer bodies from passing resolutions to bar legal practitioners from exercising the right to practice and their entitlement to practice by choice.

The bench has released a single judgement on these petitions, giving almost identical rulings for the two lawyers.

About both petitioners, the bench ruled that they were declared to have been entitled to appear and conduct cases as a legal practitioner after being enrolled as a legal practitioner under the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Act, 1973, and rules framed under it.

“Any act on part of the respondents from preventing petitioner from appearance before this Court or a Court subordinate to it or any other Court [established under the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1971, or any other law] would be illegal, unlawful and resultantly, null and void and ineffective upon rights of the petitioner,” declared the bench.

In Mr Gigyani’s case, the bench ruled that the impugned Oct 8 decision of the appeal committee of the PBC was made without any lawful authority, so it stood null and void.

“Petitioner could neither be restrained from entry to the premises of the Courts or appearing before Courts of law (if duly authorised by the person on whose behalf he puts appearance) under the garb of any resolution passed by the respondents,” it ruled,

The bench added that any such act would violate the fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed in Articles 4, 5, 10, 14, 15, 18, 19 and 26 of the Constitution.

“Any such act would also be violative of fundamental rights of those persons who have engaged petitioner as counsel for their legal representations, vested in them by Article 10-A of the Constitution of Pakistan,” it declared.

On the petition of Mr Afridi, the bench ruled that the impugned decision of the KPBC’s executive committee, where under his licence had been suspended for appearing in the courts while strike had allegedly been called by it, was made without any lawful authority vested in the executive committee.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2025