PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Tuesday reserved its judgement over pleas against decision of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council (KPBC) and changes made in the relevant rules making clearance of dues by lawyers up to Dec 31, 2025, to stand eligible for bar associations’ polls.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Farah Jamshed heard arguments of lawyers representing the petitioners as well as KPBC. Four almost identical petitions were filed by Zoya Javed, Kamran Khan, Tauqeer Ahmad and several other advocates against an impugned notification of Dec 23, 2025, and a council’s decision issued on March 7, 2026, about it.

The petitioners requested the court to declare that the notification of Dec 23 and March 7 were illegal. They requested the court to declare that the advocates, who cleared their dues within an extended deadline, remained eligible to vote and contest elections of Peshawar Bar Association.

The elections of the association were scheduled for March 28 but were postponed by the bar council after the high court suspended the impugned notification in its earlier hearing on March 12. KPBC was represented by its member Ahmad Farooq Khattak, who contended that the present petitions were not maintainable and were liable to be dismissed.

Petitioners term dues clearance deadline for election eligibility illegal

He argued that instead of directly approaching the high court, the petitioners should first agitate their plea before Pakistan Bar Council.

Advocates Shumail Ahmad Butt, Arshad Ali Nowsherwi, Dr Syed Akhtar Ali Shah, Yasir Khattak and Suleman Khan appeared for the petitioners and said that through the impugned notification of Dec 23, several hundred voters were disenfranchised.

They said while making amendments to KP Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Rules, 2010, lawyers were not put on notice to clear their dues. They said that without any formal order of the executive committee of the bar council, the matter was placed before Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), which was remanded back to KPBC for decision afresh.

They argued that instead of placing the matter before KPBC, the executive committee passed the impugned order of March 7. The lawyers said that through the impugned notification of Dec 23, amendment was introduced in Rule 94 of 2010 Rules requiring clearance of bar council dues up to Dec 31, 2025 for electoral eligibility.

They said that the notification was issued merely a few days prior to expiry of the deadline during the winter vacation period, which caused grave hardships to advocates across the province. The lawyers said that in view of those hardships, the bar council officially extended the deadline for clearance of dues up to Jan 31, 2026, through a press release.

They said that the petitioners and scores of other lawyers cleared their outstanding dues within the extended time frame granted by the competent authority. They said that subsequently one of the respondents, Farman Ali, challenged that notification and the extension before PBC, which remanded the matter back to KPBC for deciding the matter within three days.

They claimed that the executive committee members expressed divergent views and no final decision was reached regarding disenfranchisement of advocates, who paid dues within the extended time period.

The lawyers said that despite absence of any lawful determination, the impugned actions threatened to deprive the petitioners and thousands of advocates across the province from exercising their electoral rights.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2026