Ministry told to devise system to address overseas Pakistanis' grievances

Thu, June 25, 2020

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday asked the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis to evolve a mechanism for redressal of grievances of overseas Pakistanis and referred to the ministry a dispute between a British woman of Pakistani origin and a real estate firm over the ownership of a housing society as “a test case”.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah was hearing a petition of Zahida Javed Aslam seeking action on the FIA investigation report on the alleged land grabbing.

Last year, an FIA team comprising additional director general Basharat Ahmed Shahzad, deputy director Kamran Ali and inspector Irfan Azim Burni had, on the directive of the Human Rights Cell (HRC) of the Supreme Court, investigated the complaint filed by Ms Aslam.

In her complaint, Ms Aslam claimed that the incumbent owner of the real estate entity M/S Dynast Associates was her employee, but he had, in an alleged fraudulent manner, transferred her properties in his name and when she tried to retrieve the land he threatened her with dire consequences.

According to the FIA report, during the course of investigation, the records from the Registrar of Firms, Islamabad Capital Territory, the deputy commissioner’s office and the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) were taken into custody. The investigation team noted that the land had been transferred on photocopies instead of original documents.

The FIA’s investigation report concluded that the deal related to the disputed property “neither executed in normal circumstances nor the transfer of ownership on the basis of photocopies of the documents was carried out by the Registrar of Firms Office Islamabad in a transparent manner” and recommended the Supreme Court to refer the matter to the National Accountability Bureau.

However, former chief justice Saqib Nisar had on his last working day ordered the HRC to file the case to the record.

Advocate Ahsan Bhoon, the counsel for Dynast Associates, told the court that Ms Aslam had earlier filed an application in the Supreme Court and the Natio­nal Accountability Bureau, dire­ctor general of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and all other institutions had given his client a clean chit.

He further said that Rangers were a complainant against Kanwar Moeez Kh­an, the owner of Dynast Associates, but courts acquitted Mr Khan in the case.

He requested the court not to refer his case to the ministry as the “test case”.

Justice Minallah remarked that “since you are confident that state institutions like the Supreme Court and the ISI had cleared your client, you need not to be worried about any further legal proceedings”.

Justice Minallah pointed out that the IHC had been inundated with complaints of overseas Pakistanis. “I recently came across a case in which the property of an overseas Pakistani had been in illegal possession of someone since 1972,” he said.

“This is the reason that I want to know about the mechanism for redressal of grievances of overseas Pakis­tanis. In case someone is unable to come to Pakistan, how his/her case is taken care of in their absence?” he asked.

The counsel for the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation told the court that there was a complaint cell within the OPF to address the complaints of overseas Pakistanis.

“Let it be a test case for your complaint cell. Let me know how you resolve this matter,” Justice Min­allah said while referring the complaint of Ms Aslam to the ministry.

He asked the OPF if there was any record of the complaints resolved by its complaint cell so far?

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2020

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