Seven years on, K-P yet to appoint ombudsperson

Petitioner argues provincial govt bound to appoint focal person, PHC grants two days to file response

PESHAWAR: Nearly eight years after a law against harassment of women at workplaces was passed, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has failed to set up an office of ombudsman, the Peshawar High Court was told on Tuesday.

The Peshawar High court’s (PHC) two-member bench comprising Justice Qaisar Rasheed and Justice Nasir Mehfooz was hearing a writ petition filed by Da Hawwa Lur (Daughter of Eve) a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) Chief Executive Khursheed Bano seeking court’s orders for the K-P government to immediately appoint an ombudsperson for the purpose.

Under the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010, passed by the parliament, provincial governments are supposed to appoint ombudspersons.

Bano in her petition, first filed in February, explained that the governments of Punjab and Sindh have already appointed their respective ombudspersons but K-P has yet to make such an appointment.



She had listed as respondents the K-P government through its chief secretary, K-P Assembly speaker; K-P Assembly secretary, women empowerment and social welfare department through its secretary, law and human rights ministry through its secretary, and the federal government through the relevant federal secretary.

On Tuesday Saifullah Kakakhel, appearing on behalf of Bano, argued that word ‘shall’ has been used in section 7 of the harassment law. He contended that the word bound the federal and provincial governments to appointment an ombudsperson.

“There are sexual harassment cases at government departments and educational institutions which are reported but there is no proper forum for redressing these complaints,” he argued.

“Usually, inquiry committees which are constituted by the institutions to investigate such cases, have proved insufficient to handle and provide justice to the aggrieved person.”

Meanwhile, K-P Additional Advocate General Mujahid Ali, who appeared on behalf of the provincial government, said that he was not fully aware of the facts of the case and asked for additional time to submit the government’s responses in the case.

The court gave the provincial government two days to file their reply and adjourned the case till September 28.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2017.