KARACHI: The Supreme Court has directed the Sindh government to apprise it with details of the appointments made during the tenure of the present Provincial Ombudsman, Syed Peer Ali Shah, and the list of the appointees who were said to be his relatives.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim, directed the government to place on record the summaries regarding appointments and extension of the tenure of the Provincial Ombudsman to protect women against harassment in workplaces.
It instructed the government to also place on record the amount disbursed to the Provincial Ombudsman and spent by him and the cases he had decided during his tenure.
Expressing displeasure over the absence of Shah, the court directed him to appear in person in court today.
The court was hearing the petition of Aneela Khan, who has approached the court against the Provincial Ombudsman for allegedly coercing the aggrieved parties into negotiating compromises, particularly in the cases of sexual harassment at workplaces.
The court converted the letter Aneela Khan addressed to the Supreme Court – asking it to take notice of the alleged corrupt practices at the provincial ombudsman’s office – into a constitutional petition.
In her letter, Khan submitted that the Provincial Ombudsman’s conduct in dealing with cases of sexual harassment was suspect since he was forcing the parties to come to a compromise instead of bringing the offenders to book.
“Syed Peer Ali Shah was appointed in 2012 and was given an extension because of his close intimacy with the former Sindh Chief Minister. This was illegal as there is no provision for such an extension in the law,” she stated. “As a woman, it is my duty to bring it to your notice that the government is not concerned about the well-being of the people, especially women”, she told the judges.
Khan alleged that Shah made appointments in the ombudsman office on the basis of favoritism and nepotism. “He is involved in financial corruption and has established a ghost NGO that is run by his family members.”
