PESHAWAR - A writ petition was filed in Peshawar High Court on Monday for suspension of the elections of all the district bar councils in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Peshawar High Court Bar Association in view of the coronavirus pandemic, as the elections were scheduled to be held this month.
The petitioner, Khalid Hamid Advocate, a lawyer of PHC and also candidate for the post of general secretary Peshawar Bar Association, stated that the confirmed cases of Covid-19 had reached about one lakh in Pakistan and the virus was still a threat to millions of people in the country but the KP Bar Council had announced the elections for all bar associations and PHC.
The elections of all district bar associations were due in March this year but were postponed due to the corona virus threats in the province. However, the executive committee of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council rescheduled the elections on June 13 and that of Peshawar High Court Bar Association on July 4 this year.
In his writ petition, the petitioner warned that if a single covid-19 positive patient among the lawyer community or paralegal staff visited the elections/court premises, it might infect the other voters in the premises.
Even if the elections are held, it would not be a democratic process, nor would the winners be acceptable to majority of the lawyers since the voter turnout is expected to be extremely low, he added.
Therefore, the court is requested to suspend the elections of the bar associations throughout Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the sake of the lives of lawyers community and others petition, he added.
