PHC orders KP govt to appoint ombudsperson in two months

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to appoint within two months the provincial ombudsperson under an anti-harassment law.

A division bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ghazanfar Khan issued the order in a writ petition. The petition was filed by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Da Hawwa Lur (Daughter of the Eve) through Chief Executive Khursheed Bano. The petitioner sought the court’s orders for the provincial government to make the appointment forthwith.

During hearing, Assistant Advocate General, Moinuddin Humayun, informed the bench that the appointment of ombudsperson by the provincial government was under process. He submitted that earlier, the government was about to appoint the ombudsman, but the process was reversed after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Commission on the Status of Women insisted that there should be a woman ombudsperson to deal the harassment cases of women at workplaces. However, he again, sought some time on behalf of the government for the appointment of the ombudsperson.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel, informed the court that since 2010 the provincial governments, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led KP government, failed in appointment of the provincial ombudsperson under the law.

Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan asked why was the provincial government lagging behind on this issue from other provinces as nowadays the provincial governments were in the race to show failure of the other provinces and taking credit for own performance.

The lawyer informed the bench that ombudspersons had been appointed at federal level by the federal government, and by the Sindh and Punjab governments, but astonishingly the KP government had turned a blind eye towards such a crucial appointment.

He said the Parliament passed the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010, with an aim to check harassment of persons in public and private sector institutions.Under Section 7 of the said Act, he said the appointment of the federal and provincial ombudsmen had to be made by the relevant governments.

He said under the act, a person shall be qualified to be appointed as an ombudsman who has been a judge of high court or qualified to be appointed as a judge of high court. The lawyer said the Parliament later passed another law, the Federal Ombudsman Institutional Reforms Act, 2013, to relax the criteria for the appointment of the anti-harassment ombudsman under Section 21.

He said after the amendment now a woman with an experience of at least 10 years in the matters relating to protection of women against harassment shall also be eligible to be appointed by the president as ombudsman, under the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010.

It was submitted in the petition that until now, the KP government had not taken any step to implement the said law even though the representatives of the organisation held meetings with the KP Assembly’s speaker, women empowerment minister and chief secretary, who had promised to appoint the ombudsperson within one month in 2016.

The petitioner said several cases were recorded and highlighted by the media about sexual harassment at the University of Peshawar, Khyber Medical College and other institutes but due to unavailability of the post of ombudsperson, they were dealt by a wrong forum and later things were patched up by pressuring students and harassment victims.