Awareness stressed about women’s property rights

PESHAWAR: KP Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Ms Rukhshanda Naz has urged the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to raise awareness about the property rights of women in the merged districts and share such cases with her office for processing.

She was speaking at a daylong CSOs Alliance Meeting arranged here for promoting women’s property and inheritance rights in the merged districts, said a press release.

The Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) had organized the event in collaboration with the KP Ombudsperson for Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace.

She informed the participants that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had adopted “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights Act” in October 2019.

This act, Rukhshanda Naz explained, aimed at providing protection to women of their rights of ownership and possession of properties owned by them.

The ombudsperson said the act ensured that such rights were not violated by any means of harassment, coercion, force or fraud and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. She also explained the process for submitting applications to win relief in such cases. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the KP Ombudsperson Secretariat and CAMP for collaboration. Earlier, representatives from local CSOs and CAMP discussed the initiatives which could be implemented to raise awareness about women’s inheritance rights, as entailed in religion and the national laws.

The activities suggested will include jirga meetings with religious elders and tribal leaders, sessions with law-enforcement officials, community meetings with men and women, radio and print media campaigns for awareness and facilitating women to submit cases related to the property with the Ombudsperson Secretariat.

The collaborative efforts of the Ombudsperson Secretariat and CAMP will promote women’s right to inheritance in merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where women are mostly deprived of their share in inheritance.

It was noted that although laws had been extended to the former tribal belt after it was ‘merged’ with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in May 2018, local traditions and lack of administrative structures hinder their implementation.

The project, supported by the Commonwealth Foundation, will support civil society to raise awareness among the local population and advocate with provincial legislators and law-enforcement departments for the implementation of provincial inheritance law.