What the chief minister told the bar
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday, 5 January 2026 called on lawyers in Islamabad to “stand up for an independent judiciary” as he continued the PTI’s campaign to rally support for a street movement, Dawn reported. Afridi made the remarks while addressing the legal fraternity at an event organised by the Islamabad Bar Association. He had just completed a three-day visit to Lahore, after which he announced Karachi as his next destination.
“If you do not stand up for the supremacy of the Constitution and the law and for an independent judiciary, then future generations will spit on us and you as well,” Afridi said, urging the lawyers to announce a lawyers’ movement and adding that “the youth will support them. Long live resistance.” Afridi praised Advocate Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, who was in the audience, calling her someone who “created a new history of resistance”.
How it fits the PTI’s wider campaign
“You must support the PTI founder [Imran Khan] against oppression and barbarity. Whose conscience is even one per cent alive will stand against the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments, as well as unfair trials — whether of journalists or politicians — and will demand the release of all political workers who are wrongfully in jail,” Dawn quoted Afridi as saying. He also stressed that Imran did not seek his release but a fair trial, and said “a convicted person was received at the airport” — an apparent reference to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s October 2023 return to Pakistan. He also referenced journalists recently sentenced after “trials in absentia” — a direct reference to the 2 January 2026 Islamabad ATC verdicts.
What remains open
The bar association’s formal response to Afridi’s call had not been published on the date of this report. Whether the lawyers’ movement coalesces into a concrete programme and how the federal government responds to the call are the open questions following the 5 January speech.
Sources & reporting notes
This article draws on a single contemporaneous Dawn report of Afridi's 5 January 2026 address to the Islamabad Bar Association. No independent Pakistan or international outlet's same-day article on the speech could be located within the source-finding budget; wire-service direct URLs and Geo News, The News International and Express Tribune article URLs returned extraction-backend errors. The Dawn report quotes Afridi's remarks directly and is treated as an authoritative single-source account; this single-outlet limitation is disclosed in lieu of a second independent domain.
- Dawn — KP CM Sohail Afridi calls on lawyers to stand up for independence of judiciaryPublished 5 January 2026. Reports Afridi's address to the Islamabad Bar Association, his call for a lawyers' movement, his references to the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments, the recent in-absentia ATC verdicts, and his planned Karachi visit as part of the PTI's street agenda.
