PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench has stopped the anti-harassment ombudsperson from recording evidence in a property dispute between a Bosnian woman and her stepson in Swat district until further orders.

Chief Justice Musarrat Hilali issued the stay order after holding preliminary hearing into an appeal of Swat resident Sikandar Bakht and his mother, Sajida Nasreen, against the ombudsperson’s order issued under the Enforcement of Women Property Rights Act, 2019, on the complaint of Bosnian national Jasna Fajkovic.

The ombudsperson had ordered witnesses to a deed to be examined.

The Bosnian woman had filed the complaint against appellant Sikandar Bakht and revenue authorities of Swat and sought the transfer of a house and two orchards in Swat to her by virtue of a deed to the exclusion of the stepson (appellant) and first wife of her late husband, Bakht Karam Khan.

Bosnian woman, her stepson lay claim to Swat house, orchards

Advocate Nouman Muhib Kakakhel represented the appellants and contended that the ombudsperson had no authority to declare and establish a right and that she could only enforce an already established right.

He said in the case, the deed on strength of which the complainant Bosnian citizen Jasna Fajkovic claimed the right to the house and orchards had yet to be proved.

The counsel argued that the deed was not registered and was signed and stamped a month before the death of Bakht Karam Khan, who suffered from bone cancer for a decade and remained in coma.

He contended that the ombudsperson was not empowered under Enforcement of Women Property Rights Act, 2019, to record evidence and cases pertaining to recording of evidence were to be referred to a civil court.

The counsel argued that the complainant had first to establish a right before it was enforced in the law.

He said the impugned order was not tenable in the eyes of law, so it was required a judicial review by the high court.

The complainant had filed the complaint with the ombudsperson in Dec last year wherein she had claimed that her step son and brothers-in-law were trying to deprive her of property given to her by her late Pakistani husband as dower (haq mehr).

She had sought directives of ombudsperson for the revenue authorities to transfer that property, including a house and a two kanals plot, in her name.

Under Section 4 of the Act, any woman deprived of ownership or possession of her property by any means may file a complaint to the ombudsperson appointed under the Protection of Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, who can then initiate action on the complaint.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2023