March 5, 2025
By Sher Nadir
GILGIT
Lawyers across Gilgit-Baltistan have declared a court boycott until March 14, demanding the appointment of new judges in the region’s Supreme Appellate Court.
The strike will continue until the appointment of new judges in the region’s courts, the enactment of the Lawyers’ Protection Act, and the suspension of the Land Reforms Act, among other pressing issues. During this period, all lawyers will refrain from participating in proceedings at both, the lower and apex courts in Gilgit-Baltistan.
District Bar Gilgit President Abdul Jalil told Voicepk that thousands of cases are pending in the Supreme Appellate Court of Gilgit-Baltistan due to the lack of new judge appointments over the past eight years.
According to lawyers, the GB Supreme Appellate Court, the highest judicial forum in the region, has been operating with only one judge for the past seven years.
According to Rules, a single judge cannot hear cases, causing thousands of important cases to remain pending. Abdul Jalil said that the completion of the judges’ quorum in the GB Supreme Appellate Court is a demand of not only the lawyers, but the people of GB as well.
The lawyers have urged the GB Chief Judge to take steps to appoint judges to the vacant positions in labour, consumer, family and ATCs, and assistant registrar’s office.
The lawyers called for the advertisement of vacant civil judge positions and demanded that judicial magistrate posts be separated from civil judge posts, as practiced in other parts of the country, with appointments made from the legal fraternity on merit.
Prominent lawyer Advocate Taaruf Abbas noted that the Lawyers’ Protection Act is currently in effect across all four provinces of Pakistan, safeguarding the lives, property, and fundamental rights of lawyers. But the Act has not been extended to Gilgit-Baltistan territory, which he described as an injustice to the region’s legal community.
Will expand protest if not heard
Advocate Ashfaq Ahmed, a member of the Gilgit-Baltistan Bar Council Steering Committee, stated that lawyers have been on strike since November 2024 to push for their demands, but the government has yet to respond. He alleged that the government aims to seize public lands in Gilgit-Baltistan under the guise of the Land Reforms Act, prompting the lawyers to support the local population and include this issue in their demands.
The lawyers have demanded that their recommendations be incorporated before the Land Reforms Act is passed in the GB Assembly, warning that failure to do so would be a violation of local people’s rights.
Leaders of the legal community emphasized that the government must meet their demands by March 14. If not, they plan to escalate their actions with protest sit-ins and demonstrations in addition to the ongoing strike.