Women training centre: Court allows Rangers to stay at complex

Directs govt to provide an alternative facility to rural women

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has allowed the Punjab Rangers to continue using a woman skill development facility as accommodation on the outskirts of the capital.

The “Punjab Rangers is indispensable in the prevailing circumstances,” the court said in a judgement

A resident of the Tarlai Kallan had petitioned the court seeking Rangers’ eviction from the vocational training centre for women.

“No violation of fundamental rights has been observed,” the court order stated, adding that it is admitted that right to life is also a fundamental right and the state has to provide proper security arrangements in the capital.

The court elaborated that the requirement of Punjab Rangers was indispensable in the prevailing circumstances, adding that it was also apparent and observed that terrorist attacks had dropped due to special measures adopted by the government and deployment of Rangers in the capital territory was one of the key reasons in that regard.

The court has apparently told the petitioner that the law enforcers may continue to stay at the centre and a new vocational training centre for women will be built later.

In the order, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani directed the commissioner’s office and the interior ministry to conclude the issue of the Rs59.843 million PC-1 for the construction of the Women’s Development Centre at Rural Development Markaz Tarlai within three months “positively.”

The court has directed the government to allocate funds for the project in accordance with their internal arrangement as soon as possible.

The court further directed the government to earmark budget under the Public Sector Development Project (PSDP) for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 keeping in view the future generation of the area.

The court order stated that an alternative arrangement for the law enforcers was under consideration before the government.

While appreciating the chief commissioner’s office for preparing the PC-1 of the scheme, Justice Kayani said the same was under consideration for approval by the interior secretary.

Justice Kayani said that the chief commissioner’s office, the ministry of interior and the government had taken a “positive step to protect the rights of all those women who will attend the vocational training courses in future.”

“The court is satisfied” with the steps taken by respondents to protect the rights under Article 25 and 25-A of the constitution.

“I do not find anything contrary to the rights of individual vis-à-vis the state obligation,” it read.

Shakeel Ahmed Janjua through his counsel, Yasir Mehmood Chaudhry, had filed the petition saying that the Rangers have been residing in the building for the last three years.

He made interior ministry secretary, the chief commissioner, Punjab Ranger’s commandant and Islamabad’s mayor respondents in the case.

Chaudhry stated that the vocational training centre was established in Tarlai in 1990 to provide training to women of the rural area in computer, painting, cooking, beautician, and embroidery but suddenly the centre was closed.

He said that due to the occupancy of the complex, the women of the rural areas had been deprived of getting vocational training.

The petitioner said that under the law an educational institute could not be used for any other purposes.

He had prayed to the court to direct the Rangers to vacate the complex.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2016.