Women Ombudsperson Punjab: LHC seeks reply from govt about delay in appointment

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court has sought a written reply from the Government of Punjab on the prolonged and unjustified delay in filling this mandatory statutory appointment of Women Ombudsperson Punjab.

A female employed at the Office of the Advocate General Punjab (AGP) has been left without any legal recourse after suffering sustained workplace harassment because the very office created by law to protect her does not exist in any functional sense. After hearing the rival parties, LHC sought a reply from the Punjab Government.

When contacted Waheed Shahzad Butt, the lawyer of the aggrieved female employee of AGP, said that the post of Women Ombudsperson Punjab, commonly known as Khatoon Muhatsib, has been lying vacant for well over a year, rendering the entire statutory protection framework under the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010, completely paralyzed.

The petitioner, Sumaira, a Senior Clerk at the Office of the AGP has alleged that she was subjected to grave and sustained workplace harassment, intimidation, and discriminatory treatment by male officials within her own department, the very office that is meant to uphold the rule of law in the Province of Punjab. Among those named in the underlying appeal before the Ombudsperson’s office is a Staff Officer of the Advocate General Punjab, along with members of the Inquiry Committee constituted under the Act including two Additional Advocate Generals.

After exhausting internal channels, she formally approached the Office of the Women Ombudsperson Punjab for swift and specialized redressal of her complaint, as is her right under the Act. What she encountered instead was an institution reduced to a hollow shell. she was officially informed that the post of Ombudsperson Punjab is currently vacant, and no appointment has been made by the Government of Punjab for a considerable period of time.

Denied access to the sole legally designated forum for relief, the aggrieved employee was left with no option but to invoke the constitutional jurisdiction of LHC against the Governor of Punjab, the Chief Minister of Punjab, the Chief Secretary, the Secretary Ministry of Law, and the Secretary Women Development Department, Government of Punjab. The LHC has taken up the matter and sought the Government of Punjab’s reply, signalling judicial cognizance of this grave institutional failure.

Butt made a pointed and stinging observation “The Red Line declared by the Chief Minister Punjab, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, has been crossed by many government male employees, including employees of the Advocate General Punjab’s own office but the Chief Minister appears to be preoccupied with other activities. A Chief Minister who has publicly positioned herself as a champion of women’s rights and dignity presides over an administration that has allowed the one statutory institution specifically designed to protect working women from harassment to remain non-functional for over a year. Thousands of women across Punjab who suffer workplace abuse have nowhere to turn.

The petition makes abundantly clear that this is not merely the grievance of one aggrieved female employee. It is a province-wide crisis. The Women Ombudsperson Punjab is the sole forum under the Act for adjudicating workplace harassment complaints across the entire Province. Its vacancy means that every working woman in Punjab, in government offices, private institutions, and public enterprises, has been stripped of her primary statutory avenue for justice. The matter is pending adjudication. Punjab’s women are waiting and watching Waheed added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026