KP lawyers protest attack on judge, raid on colleague’s house

PESHAWAR: The legal fraternity of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa observed a complete strike across the province in protest against attack on a judge of Peshawar High Court and Mardan assistant commissioner’s raid on a house of a lawyer without a search warrant.

The lawyers observed boycott of court proceedings on the call of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council.A senior judge of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Muhammad Ayub Khan, and his driver sustained injuries when two armed men opened fire on his vehicle on Thursday on their way to the high court.

However, both the judge and his driver are reportedly stable now.The lawyers condemned the raid of Assistant Commissioner Sobia on a house of a lawyer Sartaj Muhammad in Takhtbhai tehsil of the Mardan district.

Takhtbhai Tehsil Bar Association President Farman Ali told The News that the assistant commissioner raided the house of the lawyer on the suspicion that there was a huge stock of dry tea, which proved false and nothing was recovered. He said the assistant commissioner, without any search warrant, raided the house and defamed the lawyer.

Farman Ali said the lawyers of Takhtbhai would continue their strike of courts till the transfer of the assistant commissioner.Peshawar High Court Bar Association secretary general Yasir Khattak said that in addition to the incidents of attack of the judge and raid on lawyers’ house, the KP lawyers would observe complete boycott of courts today also in protest against the brutal killing of a young lawyer, Asif Hussain, in the Kohat district.

He demanded the KP government to provide security to lawyers and transfer the assistant commissioner, who allegedly took the law into her own hands and raided the house of a lawyer without a search warrant.