QUETTA, Feb 25: The courts here are expected to resume routine functioning on Monday after remaining close for a week following a strike by lawyers in protest against the suicide attack of Feb 17 which left 17 people dead.

The lawyers did not attend the proceedings of the courts from Feb 19 to 24 and presented several demands urging the government to take concrete security measures for the premises.

Pakistan Bar Council Vice-Chairman Ali Ahmed Kurd said the government had promised to meet the lawyers’ demand of increasing the compensation for heirs of their colleagues killed in the incident from Rs300,000 to Rs1.5 million and for those injured to Rs500,000. He said the government had also agreed to refer the injured lawyers to other hospitals outside the province if the medical facilities required were not available in Quetta.

Mr Kurd said the government agreed to shift the motorbike and cycle stands from the court premises, where only official and lawyers’ vehicles would be parked.