KP Lawyers Strike Across the Province as Peshawar High Court Powers Stay Suspended

November 11, 2026 Faizan Altaf

Lawyers across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stayed away from the courts on Tuesday in a province-wide strike against a court order that has suspended the Peshawar High Court’s power to hear constitutional cases. The strike brought court work to a standstill in Peshawar and other cities, and the lawyers have warned of an indefinite strike if the high court’s powers are not restored by 16 November.

The protest is about a decision of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), Pakistan’s new constitutional court. On 5 November, the FCC ordered that the Peshawar High Court cannot hear constitutional petitions filed on or after 12 October, because the armed forces have been called in to help the civil administration in the province. Lawyers say the order takes away the basic rights of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and blocks their access to justice.

The strike was called by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council, the body that represents lawyers in the province. It was a one-day protest, but the message from the lawyers was clear: if the Peshawar High Court’s powers are not restored by 16 November, they will stop work indefinitely.

What happened on Tuesday

On Tuesday, 10 November, lawyers across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa boycotted court proceedings on the call of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council. They stayed away from the courts, including the Peshawar High Court at its main seat in Peshawar and its benches in other cities of the province.

The strike disrupted court work across the province, and many cases could not be heard. People who had travelled long distances for their hearings were forced to return home without being heard.

The decision to boycott the courts was taken by the Bar Council in an emergency general body meeting chaired by its vice-chairman, Mohammad Rafiq, on 7 November. The meeting was also attended by Sardar Waqarul Mulk, chairman of the council’s executive committee, and other members.

The council said the FCC’s decision had taken away the basic rights of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It said it opposed undemocratic actions such as governor’s rule and the emergency in the province, and would raise its voice on every forum for the restoration of democracy.

Alongside the boycott, the Bar Council has also decided to fight the order in court. It has filed an application with the Federal Constitutional Court to become a party in the case about detentions under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance. The application was filed through Bar Council member Babar Khan Yousafzai, and it asks the court to restore the constitutional jurisdiction of the Peshawar High Court under Article 199 of the Constitution.

“We strongly condemn this decision, which is why a one-day province-wide strike was called,” Yousafzai said. “We will fight our case in the legal forums and continue our efforts to restore the constitutional jurisdiction of the Peshawar High Court. This decision is affecting the constitutional rights of the people of the province and their access to justice, so it should be withdrawn.”

The meeting that set the 16 November deadline

While the strike was under way, representatives of bar associations from across the province met on the premises of the Peshawar High Court. The meeting was chaired by Aminur Rahman Yousafzai, president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association.

The meeting was attended by the presidents of the Peshawar High Court Bar Associations of Peshawar and its circuit benches at Bannu, Abbottabad and Dera Ismail Khan, the general secretaries of the Peshawar, Bannu and Abbottabad benches, and the presidents and general secretaries of district bar associations. Naveed Akhtar of the Pakistan Bar Council and Babar Khan Yousafzai of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council also attended.

The meeting unanimously decided that the struggle of the lawyers’ bodies would continue until the Peshawar High Court’s powers under Article 199 of the Constitution were restored. It demanded that the matter pending before the Federal Constitutional Court be taken up for hearing on Wednesday, 11 November.

The meeting also decided that the president of the Peshawar High Court Bar Association would contact all stakeholders and ask them to play their role in restoring the high court’s powers until 16 November. If the powers are not restored by that date, the lawyers have threatened to begin an indefinite strike.

Two more decisions were taken at the meeting. The Peshawar High Court bar associations will themselves become a party to the matter pending before the Federal Constitutional Court. And the lawyers decided to convene an All Pakistan Lawyers Convention, under the supervision of all the bar councils in the country, to take up the issue at the national level.

What the Federal Constitutional Court ordered

The order at the centre of the dispute was issued on Thursday, 5 November, by a two-member bench of the Federal Constitutional Court comprising Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Aamir Farooq.

The bench was hearing appeals filed by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government against interim orders of the Peshawar High Court. The high court had granted relief to political workers who were arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) law. The provincial government challenged those orders before the constitutional court.

In its order, the FCC bench declared: “Since the armed forces have been called to act in aid of civil power in the entire province of KP pursuant to the Oct 11 order, the proceedings before PHC instituted under Article 199 on or after Oct 12 shall, in terms of Clause 4 of Article 245, remain suspended.”

In simple words, the court said that because the armed forces were called in to assist the civil administration in the whole province under an order dated 11 October, the Peshawar High Court cannot hear constitutional petitions filed on or after 12 October.

The court also directed the province’s Advocate General to submit a report within seven days, identifying the areas where the armed forces were no longer required to act in aid of civil power. The court said it would consider changing its order after examining that report.

Following the FCC order, the Peshawar High Court’s administrative committee decided on Friday, 6 November, that it would not proceed with petitions filed under Article 199 on or after 12 October. It also decided that fresh petitions would not be accepted and would be returned to the petitioners, who were told to approach the “appropriate” forum instead.

What Article 199 and Article 245 mean

To understand why lawyers are so angry, it helps to understand two parts of Pakistan’s Constitution: Article 199 and Article 245.

Article 199 gives the high courts their most important power for ordinary citizens. Under this article, a high court can issue orders, known as writs, to protect a person’s fundamental rights. If someone believes they have been detained unlawfully, or that a government department has acted against the law, they can go to the high court and ask it to intervene. This is the main way ordinary people get quick relief from the courts when their rights are at stake.

Article 245 deals with the armed forces. It allows the armed forces to be called in to act in aid of civil power, which means helping the civilian administration when it asks for support. Clause 4 of the article says that when the armed forces are acting in aid of civil power, the high court cannot exercise its powers under Article 199 in the areas where the forces are operating.

The dispute now is about how widely that restriction should apply. The FCC’s order suspends the Peshawar High Court’s Article 199 powers for cases filed on or after 12 October across the entire province, because the armed forces were called in for the whole of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the 11 October order. Lawyers argue that this reading goes too far and leaves the people of an entire province without access to the high court for the protection of their fundamental rights. Barrister Sarwar Muzaffar Shah described the order as “astonishing and worrying”, saying it had far-reaching implications for the enforcement of fundamental rights in the province.

Which cases are affected

The suspension has already affected several high-profile cases filed under Article 199. These include petitions challenging the imposition of the emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

It has also hit petitions about the alleged illegal detention of senior political figures. According to reports, these include petitions concerning Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, who has been described as non-functional, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial president Junaid Akbar, and several other PTI lawmakers and leaders.

But lawyers stress that the impact goes far beyond political cases. Ordinary citizens approach the high court to protect their fundamental rights and to challenge unlawful detention. With hearings on many constitutional petitions now halted, they say ordinary people will also find it harder to get justice.

“This order is not only affecting the cases of political figures; ordinary citizens will also feel its impact,” said PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan. He said important cases had been removed from the list of matters pending before the Peshawar High Court, and that the court should have decided for itself which cases the FCC’s order applied to.

What PTI plans to do

PTI has also announced that it will challenge the Federal Constitutional Court’s order. Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said the party will file an application in the FCC seeking the withdrawal of the order.

The lawyers’ strike, the bar associations’ decision to become parties in the case, and PTI’s planned challenge mean the FCC will now face pressure from several directions. Legal circles are watching closely to see how the constitutional court rules on these applications.

Why this matters beyond politics

This is not only a dispute between lawyers and judges, or between political parties. At its heart, it is about whether the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa can go to their high court when they believe their rights have been violated. The high court is usually the first place a citizen turns to when detained without cause, when a government office refuses to follow the law, or when they need urgent protection of a fundamental right. If that door is closed, even temporarily, people are left with fewer options and longer waits for justice.

The planned All Pakistan Lawyers Convention suggests the legal community sees this as a national issue, not just a provincial one. The province is already under governor’s rule and an emergency, and the armed forces are assisting the civil administration. Against that background, the suspension of the high court’s powers has become a symbol, for the lawyers, of how far normal constitutional protections have been pushed aside.

What happens next

Several things are expected to happen in the coming days.

First, the lawyers have demanded that the Federal Constitutional Court take up the matter for hearing on Wednesday, 11 November.

Second, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General is due to submit a report to the FCC within seven days of the 5 November order, saying in which areas the armed forces are no longer needed. The court has said it will consider changing its order after looking at that report. Third, the applications by the Bar Council, the bar associations and PTI to become parties in the case, or to have the order withdrawn, will come before the court.

And finally, the 16 November deadline hangs over everything. If the Peshawar High Court’s powers are not restored by then, the lawyers say they will begin an indefinite strike, which would bring court work in the province to a halt for much longer than a single day.

For now, the courts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are back to work after the one-day strike. But the dispute that caused it is far from over, and the next few days will show whether it is resolved in the courtroom or escalates into a longer confrontation.

Frequently asked questions

Why did lawyers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa go on strike?

Lawyers boycotted the courts on 10 November to protest a Federal Constitutional Court order that suspended the Peshawar High Court’s power to hear constitutional petitions filed on or after 12 October. They say the order takes away the basic rights of the people of the province and blocks their access to justice.

What did the Federal Constitutional Court order on 5 November?

A two-member bench of the FCC ordered that proceedings before the Peshawar High Court in cases filed under Article 199 on or after 12 October shall remain suspended, under Clause 4 of Article 245, because the armed forces have been called in to act in aid of civil power across the province under an order dated 11 October.

What is Article 199 of the Constitution?

Article 199 gives high courts the power to issue orders, known as writs, to enforce the fundamental rights of citizens. It is the main way ordinary people can ask a high court for quick relief if they believe they have been detained unlawfully or a government body has acted against the law.

What happens if the Peshawar High Court’s powers are not restored by 16 November?

The lawyers have threatened to begin an indefinite strike. The Peshawar High Court Bar Association has also decided to call an All Pakistan Lawyers Convention to take up the issue at the national level.

Which cases have been affected by the suspension?

Petitions challenging the emergency and governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, petitions about the alleged detention of Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, Assembly Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, PTI provincial president Junaid Akbar and other PTI leaders, and cases of hundreds of PTI workers detained under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

What are the bar councils and PTI doing about the order?

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council has applied to become a party in the case before the FCC and asked for the high court’s powers to be restored. The Peshawar High Court bar associations have decided to do the same. PTI has announced it will file an application in the FCC seeking withdrawal of the order.

Conclusion

The one-day strike by lawyers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was a warning, not an ending. The legal community in the province believes the suspension of the Peshawar High Court’s powers under Article 199 leaves millions of people without their most direct route to justice. The Federal Constitutional Court believes the suspension follows from the Constitution once the armed forces are called in to aid civil power.

Both sides will now make their case before the constitutional court, and the hearings expected in the coming days will matter far beyond the courtroom. If the order is changed or withdrawn, the high court can resume hearing the petitions frozen since 5 November. If it stands, and the 16 November deadline passes without a solution, the province could face an indefinite lawyers’ strike and a much longer period in which its citizens cannot turn to their high court.

Sources

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.

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