PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to produce a report and inform the court about the duration for the formation of district protection committees under the domestic violence law.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali directed an additional advocate general to submit the report by Dec 17 after discussing the issue with authorities.

The petition, filed by human rights activist and lawyer Mehwish Muhib Kakakhel as public interest litigation, sought implementation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Domestic Violence against Women (Prevention and Protection) Act, 2021, and notifying the relevant protection committees.

The petitioner requested the court to order the provincial government, provincial social welfare and law departments and KP Commission on the Status of Women to implement the law and notify the district protection committees.

Lawyer moves petition for enforcement of law to check violence against women

She sought the court’s orders for the government to take immediate and concrete steps for the welfare and protection of women by notifying DPCs and to notify the rules of business under the Act.

Ms Kakakhel, who is also a member of the National Commission for Human Rights’ advisory committee for KP, said due to the efforts of women rights activists, a law pending enactment for decades was finally passed in 2021 for addressing the issue of domestic violence in the province.

She argued that presently the law was useless as women in the province had not been benefitting from it due to the non-notifying of the district protection committees (DPCs) with which a victim of domestic violence could file a complaint for redressal of her grievances.

The petitioner contended that DPCs were the soul and spirit of the Act and delaying the relevant notification of those committees was illegal, unconstitutional and without legal authority.

She also argued that the police, in the cases of domestic violence, refused to register FIRs on complaints of affected women unless their bones were fractured and they were critically injured.

Ms Kakakhel said that the women were mostly sent back for resolving their matters within the family even in cases of extreme violence.

She contended that delaying the formation of these committees would further enhance violence against women, which was not only against the Constitution and the law, but it also violated the international conventions and treaties that provided for elimination of violence against women in all forms and Pakistan was signatory to.

The counsel argued that Section 4(k) of the Act declared that either chairperson of the concerned district committee on the status of women or in his or her absence the District Social Welfare Officer would be the secretary of the DPC, which fulfilled the requirements of its constitution.

She added that Section 8(e) of the KPCSW Act provided for the establishment of a district committee on the status of women which had not been established till date.

An additional advocate general requested the court to grant two months’ time to the government for establishing district protection committees.

The bench directed him to contact authorities in order to ensure the timely establishment of the committees and submit a report to it by Dec 17.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024