KARACHI: In a first of its kind development, a sessions’ court on Wednesday directed police to register a mother’s case regarding her dispossession from a house by her son, under the provisions of the Parents Protection Ordinance, 2021.

This was believed to be the first instance wherein a court had ordered registration of the case under the provisions of the Parents Protection Ordinance, 2021 which had rarely been exercised by police since its promulgation, lawyers said.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ali Ahmed Jan of the Model Criminal Trial Court (West) passed this order while disposing of a petition filed by Nighat Jamal seeking a direction for the station house officer of the Iqbal Market police station to register a case against her son.

In the application filed under sections 22-A and B of the Criminal Procedure Code, the petitioner alleged that her son Mohammad Jamshed was married and used to live in a house owned by her.

Her counsel Arsalan Raja said that on July 20, the accused tried to dispossess the petitioner from her house. She moved an application for registration of a case in terms of Section 5 of the Parents Protection Ordinance, 2021.

Section 5 (powers of police to arrest) reads as “Upon receiving information from a parent, the police may arrest without arrest warrant any person responsible for committing an offence under this ordinance.”

The counsel said that instead the Iqbal Market police submitted a report under sections 107 (abetment of a thing) and 117 (abetting commission of offence by the public or by more than 10 persons).

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2021