PESHAWAR: The lawyers` community observed boycott of courts across the province on Wednesday in protest against non-fulfillment of the commitments made by the federal and provincial governments regarding payment of compensation to legal heirs of lawyers who were killed in the terrorist attack in Quetta over two months ago.

The strike was observed on the call of Pakistan Bar Council and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council. In Peshawar, lawyers mostly stayed away from appearing before courts, including the high court and subordinate courts.

Representatives of the KP Bar Council and PHC Bar Association said that in the deadly attack inside a hospital in Quetta in Aug over 70 persons mostly lawyers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up. They said that the lawyers had gone to the hospital when one of their colleagues was killed by a target killer and the body was taken to the hospital.

They said that after protest by lawyers the federal and Balochistan governments had made commitment that families of the deceased would be paid compensation equivalent to that of government servants.

However, the governments had not been fulfilling that commitment.

Meanwhile, a delegation of PHCBA headed by its president Muzamil Khan visited Mardan district courts and met with the members of the bar association, including its president Ameer Hussain.

The delegation handed over a cheque of Rs1 million to the president for the lawyers and their families who were killed or injured in last month`s terrorist attack on Mardan courts.