PESHAWAR: Lawyers observed province-wide strike on Wednesday against the alleged abduction and inflicting severe torture on member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC) and leader of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Advocate Ali Zaman in Rawalpindi a day earlier.

Condemning the occurrence, KPBC announced to continue the strike today (Thursday). The legal fraternity demanded arrest of culprits and exemplary punishment to them.

Advocate Ali Zaman, a former president of Peshawar Bar Association (PBA) and also a provincial assembly candidate in Feb 2024 general elections, was abducted by unidentified persons in Rawalpindi. They set him free after severely torturing him.

Pictures of Mr Zaman, showing severe torture marks all around his body, had gone viral on social media on Wednesday morning, resulting in lawyers’ outrage.

KPBC announces boycott will continue today

In a statement issued here, KPBC said that kidnapping a senior lawyer and subjecting him to brutal torture was a shameful act, which was a threat not only to legal fraternity rather to the entire justice system.

The council called upon law enforcement agencies to initiate criminal proceedings against any of the ‘agency’ involved in the heinous offence. The council asked all the lawyers across the province to stay away from court proceedings today (Thursday).

Meanwhile, a general body meeting of Peshawar High Court Bar Association was held, which announced its all-out support to Mr Zaman.

The meeting was addressed by PHCBA president Ameenur Rehman Yousafzai, general secretary Ashfaq Daudzai, president of PBA Qaiser Zaman, Yasir Khattak, Babar Khan Yousafzai, Isaac Ali Qazi, Zahidullah Zahid, Abdul Munim and others.

Mr Yousafzai claimed that Mr Zaman was kept in illegal detention. He added that it was all because the unity showed by lawyers, who had blocked Khyber Road near KP Assembly for many hours on Tuesday night, that he was set free.

However, he said that Mr Zaman was tortured violently. He said that lawyers condemned it in the strongest possible terms. He said that there was complete unity among lawyers. Whenever there would be any unconstitutional and illegal act against a lawyer, they would react to it irrespective of their political divide, he added.

He also demanded that the strike should be continued till complete recovery of Mr Zaman from his injuries.

Other speakers also condemned the incident, stating that ‘state agencies’ had been targeting vocal voices against state oppressions. They said that Mr Zaman was a responsible lawyer and had he committed any illegality, he was always available to appear before any of the courts. They said that abducting and torturing a senior lawyer in broad daylight put a question mark on security situation. They said that lawyers would adopt much harsh future course of action if perpetrators of the occurrence were not arrested

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2026