Women being ‘deprived of rights’ in unconstitutional way

SC moves in favour of niece in land dispute case with her uncle

ISLAMABAD:

Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa on Thursday observed that women were being deprived of their rights in an unconstitutional and un-Islamic manner.

The CJP was heading a three-member bench which heard the case pertaining to a land dispute between an uncle and his niece.

The court ordered the Dera Ghazi Khan Revenue Department to immediately hand over Sara Akhtar the possession of her share of inherited land after taking it from her maternal uncle, Sardar Mansoor.

The court also directed the maternal uncle to pay all the expenditure his niece had incurred on litigation. During the course of hearing, the CJP remarked that the court was not giving special concession to women.

The petitioner’s lawyer said that the woman had sold her land in 1989 to her maternal uncle, reclaimed its ownership after 20 years and denied her own signature on the sale deed.

Justice Athar Minallah observed that it was the responsibility of the buyer to prove the purchase of the land.
Three courts had ruled against the petitioner, he noted.

Sara’s lawyer said that his client was a minor at the time of the alleged sale of the land.

Mansoor is the former chairman of district council who had transferred the land to his young children, wife, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, he added.