ISLAMABAD:
The Supreme Court dismissed as inadmissible the appeals filed by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government and the KP Women’s Ombudsman in a dispute over ownership and distribution.
In a written ruling authored by Judge Musarrat Hilali, the court questioned why the government and the ombudsman filed an appeal when the private parties themselves had remained silent.
The Oversight Committee found that the Ombudsman acts as a judge, not a party, and cannot defend her decisions in higher courts. As a quasi-judicial institution, the Ombudsman cannot become an affected party in such cases and must remain neutral.
The court further held that the KP government was neither an heir to the property nor personally affected by the decision.
Therefore, neither the government nor the ombudsman had the legal authority to appeal. However, the right of the original title claimants to file an appeal remains unaffected.
The dispute related to the ownership and distribution of property between Shabbir Khan and other private parties. The KP Women Ombudsman decided the case under the Women Property Act 2019. But the Peshawar High Court (PHC) set aside the Ombudsman’s decision, ruling that it exceeded jurisdiction.
