Peshawar – Rubab Mehdi, the Provincial Ombudsperson for the Safety of Girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has launched her workplace’s first annual efficiency report, revealing that girls throughout the province had been awarded property price Rs4.10 billion over the previous 12 months, with greater than 20,000 hearings performed up to now.
Addressing a press convention, the Ombudsperson mentioned her workplace was established underneath the Structure to offer swift and inexpensive justice to marginalized segments of society, notably ladies, who can not bear the prolonged delays and prices related to typical courts.
She mentioned the workplace’s mandate covers two key legal guidelines – the Safety towards Harassment of Girls on the Office Act, 2010, and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Enforcement of Girls’s Property Rights Act, 2019. Beneath the Harassment Act, the Ombudsperson has the powers of a Excessive Courtroom, whereas in property rights instances, she workouts the powers of a District Courtroom.
She recalled that when she took oath of workplace, the establishment had a backlog of two,397 pending instances, with new complainants being given listening to dates as far out as November and December. Beneath the earlier system, solely 20 to 25 instances had been heard each day — a tempo she deemed insufficient. She subsequently elevated the each day trigger record to 80–120 instances. Though the transfer was initially dismissed as unworkable, the whole backlog was cleared inside 4 months, she mentioned.
She added that the workplace now receives 15 to twenty new complaints each day, with roughly 4,000 contemporary instances registered to date. Any complainant is assured a listening to date inside 15 to twenty days, she mentioned. The Ombudsperson clarified that authorized illustration just isn’t obligatory and that residents are free to pursue their instances and not using a lawyer in the event that they select.
To make sure enforcement of its rulings, the workplace signed memorandums of understanding with the Nationwide Meeting and the Provincial Meeting, she mentioned. Within the curiosity of transparency, an official web site was launched, and an settlement with Pakistan Put up was signed to make correspondence traceable, guaranteeing that no celebration might later declare non-receipt of official communication.
In property-related instances the place income information are discovered poor or implementation of orders faces obstruction, the workplace dispatches commissions to resolve issues on the bottom. To this point, 226 commissions have been constituted, of which 144 have been accomplished, leading to ladies being handed the keys to their houses.
Quite than confining its work to Peshawar, the workplace held open courts (khuli kachehris) throughout all divisions of the province, together with Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Hazara and Malakand. These marked the primary events on which the Girls Ombudsperson, the divisional commissioner and the Regional Police Officer (RPO) had been current collectively, enabling ladies to obtain on-the-spot reduction. Based on the report, 97 p.c of complaints raised at these open courts had been resolved on web site.
The Ombudsperson mentioned her workplace not too long ago held a webinar with vice chancellors of 48 universities to boost consciousness of the Harassment Act and be certain that inquiry committees are established at each establishment.
She mentioned the workplace has compiled practically 900 testimonials, recorded with the consent of girls who’ve obtained their due rights.
Citing one instance, she referred to a case filed in 2009 — and pending for 17 years — that her workplace resolved inside two months, after which the girl involved was handed the keys to her home.
The Ombudsperson appealed to media representatives to additionally spotlight the establishment’s achievements and optimistic developments, noting that adverse information tends to obtain disproportionate consideration whereas public-service establishments working for individuals’s welfare typically stay under-recognized.
