LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on a man, rejecting his plea for taking back a property he had gifted to his wife.

Dismissing petition of one Muhammad Riaz, Justice Shahid Waheed observed it was reprehensible to drag his (petitioner’s) sick wife and mother of his children in courts without any cause.

Muhammad Riaz, after the death of his first wife, had married Fatima Bibi, a divorcee mother mother of two daughters. In 1995, the petitioner, a resident of Mandi Bahauddin, gifted 56 kanals of land to his wife. However, he later approached the courts after 16 years to reclaim the property.

After a civil court dismissed his petition, the petitioner filed a civil revision in the LHC against the trial court decision.

The petitioner, through his counsel contended that his wife got the property transferred in her name through fraud and conspiracy. He made the collector, tehsildar, patwari and his wife a party in the civil revision.

Justice Waheed ruled that the petitioner could not prove the allegations of the conspiracy, fraud and collusion. He noted that the petitioner voluntarily and consciously gave the land to his wife as a gift but the acquisition of the land 16 years after its transfer to his wife was malicious.

The petitioner stated that even if the gift proved to be valid in favour of his wife, he wanted to revoke it.

However, the judge in his verdict termed this highly abominable.

The judge referred to a hadith of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that read as “the person who revokes his gift, is like the dog that licks up what it disgorges.”

“The desire to revoke the gift indicates that the plaintiff’s intention is only to hurt his wife who is now stated to be a patient of multiple diseases. Instead of taking care of her, he, undeterred by his failure in courts below, is dragging her in the litigation up to the level of this court,” the judge remarks.

The judge dismissed the civil revision, ordering the petitioner to pay a fine of Rs100,000.

Expat doctor: The Lahore High Court has allowed a petition by an overseas Pakistani doctor, directing the Inter-Board Committee of Chairman (IBCC) to issue him an equivalence certificate so he can sit the upcoming national licensing board examination by the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC).

Petitioner Hamza Khan completed his MBBS in 2015 from a university in the United Arab Emirates. After returning to Pakistan, he submitted a form before the now-defunct Pakistan Medical and Dental Council to sit the examination of National Examination Board to secure a medical practice licence.

The petitioner’s counsel Sheraz Zaka argued that the council refused to entertain the form and categorically stated that the petitioner needed an equivalence certificate from the IBCC. The petitioner subsequently applied for the IBCC certificate of his high school diploma, which he also attained from a school in the UAE. However, he said the IBCC refused to recognise the petitioner’s diploma.

The counsel stated that the petitioner’s high school diploma had been recognised by the equivalence board of the UAE, known as Knowledge and Human Development Authority’, yet the IBCC refused to issue an equivalence certificate.

IBCC’s counsel Mahboob Sheikh told the court that the board recently decided to grant equivalence certificates to foreign qualified students and facilitate overseas Pakistanis.

Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza allowed the petition and directed the IBCC to grant an equivalence certificate to the petitioner and also directed the PMC to allow the petitioner to sit its forthcoming licensing exam.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2020