Ownership in property: NA passes Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights (Amendment) Bill

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Monday passed the Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights (Amendment) Bill, 2020, to provide an effective and speedy redressal mechanism to protect women rights of ownership in property. According to details of the bill, any woman deprived of ownership of property or possession of her property, may file an appeal to the Ombudsman appointed under Section 7 of the Ombudsman for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010.

The Ombudsman after going through the complaint will seek a report from the deputy commissioner within 15 days and will pass the judgment after going through the record. The Ombudsman will also seek objections from the woman and her adversaries giving time to file objection and will complete hearing on objections within 60 days.

The bill which amends Women’s Property Rights Ordinance, 2019, says that if the Ombudsman feels that the woman was deprived of property illegally, he would direct the deputy commissioner to take action and submit a compliance report to the Ombudsman office within seven days. “The Ombudsman may direct any state functionary, including the relevant deputy commissioner, where property of the complainant is situated to execute orders in letter and spirit,” the bill passed by the House said.

The National Assembly also passed nine other bills, including the University of Islamabad Bill, 2020; The Global Change Impact Studies Centre (Amendment) Bill, 2020; [The National College of Arts Institute Bill, 2020; The Protection of Communal Properties of

Minorities (Amendment) Bill, 2020; The Islamabad Capital Territory Charities Registration, Regulation and Facilitation Bill, 2020; The National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021; the Hyderabad Institute for Technical and Management Sciences Bill, 2021; The Privatization Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and The Loans for Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Purposes (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

On assurances given by the minister for education, MQM member Sabir Qaimkhani agreed to withdraw certain amendments in the bill.

The president of Pakistan and the federal minister for education will be Chancellor and Pro Chancellor of the Hyderabad Institute for Technical and Management, which will be a degree, diploma and certificate awarding institute.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, who moved the bill, congratulated the MQM over the passage of the legislation which would provide for establishment of a quality institute in Hyderabad.

Members from the MQM lodged a protest against the violent act by activists of the nationalist parties of Sindh at a private residential society, Karachi, where they burnt property of millions of rupees while raising slogans of ‘Jeay Sindh’.

The MQM parliamentarians, including Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, Sabir Qaimkhani and others, said the police personnel acted as silent spectators when the protesters were burning flats and other property at the housing scheme.