PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday disposed of a petition against the non-appointment of the provincial ombudsperson under an anti-harassment law, giving the provincial government two months to fill the post.

Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Mohammad Ghazanfar expressed displeasure at the delay on part of the provincial government in the appointment in question observing the anti-harassment provincial ombudspersons had already been appointed to Punjab and Sindh but that hadn’t happened in KP yet.

The petition was filed an NGO, Da Hawwa Lur (daughter of the Eve), through its chief executive, Khursheed Bano, seeking the court’s orders for the provincial government to immediately make the said appointment.

The respondents in the petition are the KP government through its chief secretary; KP Assembly speaker; KP Assembly secretary; women empowerment and social welfare department through its secretary; law, justice and human rights ministry through its secretary, and the federal government through the relevant federal secretary.

AAG says social welfare dept is considering several names for the post

The bench told the petitioner’s counsel, Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel, that if the government failed to comply with its (court’s) orders, he should file another petition after two months.

The lawyer said while ombudspersons were appointed at federal level by the federal government and by the Sindh and Punjab governments in their respective provinces, the KP government had turned a blind eye to such a crucial appointment.

He requested the court to declare the non-appointment of ombudsman illegal and based on the government’s ‘ulterior motives’.

The lawyer said the government had been using delaying tactics and that while women had been facing harassment in different institutions, especially universities, there was no ombudsperson with whom a complaint could be filed.

Additional advocate general Mohiuddin Humayun said the appointment process was in progress.

He informed the bench that earlier, the provincial social welfare department had decided that the provincial ombudsman working for redressing grievances against government offices would be given the additional responsibility of the anti-harassment ombudsperson.

Mr Humayun, however, said as it was against the law, that plan was not materialised.

He said the department had been considering a person for the said job but it received objection from the KP Provincial Commission on the Status of Women, which wanted that a woman should be appointed to the post.

Mr Humayun said the department was considering different names for the post and that it was likely that the ombudsperson would be appointed within a month.

Saifullah Kakakhel said parliament passed the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010, in 2010 with an aim to check harassment of persons in public and private sector institutions.

He said under Section 7 of the said Act, the appointment of the federal and provincial ombudsmen had to be made by the relevant governments.

“That section provides that a person shall be qualified to be appointed as an ombudsman who has been a judge of high court or qualified to be appointed as a judge of high court,” he said.

The lawyer said the KP government didn’t take any step to implement the said law even though the representatives of his client’s organisation held meetings with the KP Assembly’s speaker, women empowerment minister and chief secretary, who had promised to appoint the ombudsperson within one month in 2016.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2017