Ombudsperson issues warrants in women’s inheritance cases

Punjab ombudsman provides financial relief to 19 plaintiffs

SARGODHA:

The Ombudsperson of Punjab (Khatoon Mohtasib), Nabila Hakim Ali, on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for a retired patwari and five others, including a sub-inspector, during the hearing of cases related to women’s inheritance.

She issued these orders while hearing the women’s inheritance cases at the Regional Ombudsman’s office in Sargodha.

She also ordered the revenue department concerned to submit reports within 10 days in six other cases.

As many as 13 cases of Sargodha division were presented during the hearing, nine of them relating to inheritance.

She said that the rights of women were being protected under the Punjab Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights Act.

Meanwhile, the Ombudsman of Punjab, Major (Retd.) Azam Suleman, on applications of aggrieved people against government departments, provided over Rs25 million of financial relief to 19 plaintiffs along with redressal of their issues.

A spokesman for the Office of the Ombudsman stated this in a statement issued in Lahore on Tuesday.

The spokesman said that the education department paid employment dues worth over Rs3 million to Lahore’s Farzana Arif whose husband had passed away; over Rs2 million to the sister of a Sheikhupura-based widow; and arrears amounting to Rs586,715 to one Shamim Akhtar by the Khushab Municipal Committee after they approached the ombudsman’s office for payment of their long-awaited amounts.

The Office of the Ombudsman of Punjab resolved the complaints from various districts about the non-provision of different kinds of dues and family pensions and provided a total relief of over Rs7 million to the plaintiffs, the spokesman added.

As a result of the action taken by the ombudsman’s office on the requests for payment of services and work done by business organisations, one Bassam Ahmad Latif had been given Rs952,400 by the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, Lahore; Muhammad Humayun Zaib Malik Rs519,234 by the Jhelum Municipal Committee, and Malik Muhammad Imran Rs1.6 million by Rawalpindi PHA, the spokesman noted.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2023.