PESHAWAR, Feb 22: A tussle between lawyers and Peshawar High Court judges is likely to end soon after Chief Justice Mohammad Raza Khan ordered on Friday the unsealing of bar rooms, library and cafeteria, and lifting of a ban on the entry of protesting lawyers into the court.

A high court official confirmed to Dawn that the premises, which had been sealed by police on February 7, would be reopened on Saturday.

The standoff began when an FIR was registered against 15 lawyers for allegedly trying to storm the courtroom.

“The judges of the high court have assured that no action will be taken against any of the lawyers charged in the FIR for the time being and steps will be taken to cancel the FIR,” PHC Bar Association (PHCBA) president Lateef Afridi told Dawn.

He said the association had taken back its call for a lawyers’ protest across the province on Feb 25 if the ban was not lifted by Feb 23.

The chief justice issued the orders to lift the ban after a meeting with lawyers’ representatives who maintained that the protesting lawyers had neither misbehaved with any of the judges in the past nor did they intend to do so in the future.

Justice Raj Mohammad Khan, Justice Said Maroof Khan and Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani attended the meeting.

Lateef Afridi, Pakistan Bar Council’s executive committee chairman Qazi Mohammad Anwer, Supreme Court Bar Association vice-president Saeed Akhter, PHCBA secretary-general Ishtiaq Ibrahim, Barrister Masood Kausar, PHCBA president Dera Ismail Khan Circuit bench, Daud Khan, secretary-general Ayaz Chaudhry and members of the NWFP Bar Council Parveen Akhter and Khalid Mahmood comprised the lawyers’ delegation.

Mr Afridi said they would now revert back to their previous pattern of boycott, under which lawyers would observe a complete boycott of superior courts and subordinate courts boycott on Saturday and two-hour boycott on other days.

Police had claimed in the controversial FIR that 15 lawyers had stormed the courtroom when a bench headed by Justice Hamid Farooq Durrani was hearing cases.

The lawyers denied the allegation and said that they had not entered the courtroom and were only trying to persuade two of their colleagues not to end the boycott of superior courts.