Peshawar High Court orders historic Panjtirath Hindu temple to be cleaned
He was hearing a petition about the state of disrepair of the historic temple located on GT Road, Peshawar.
Ali Gohar Durrani, the petitioner’s counsel told the court that all the garbage of the park is collected at the temple.
Deputy administrator Auqaf informed the court that the temple is closed at the moment so its cleanliness is not the responsibility of the department and there is a passage available to the temple.
Chief justice said that auqaf employees were interested in drawing salaries only and were not interested in performing their duty. He ordered the deputy administrator to present a permanent solution for the issue and asked him to clean the temple otherwise court would order his removal from the job.
CJ ordered him to thoroughly clean the temple and report back to the court.
Husband’s cruelty to wife can be the basis to dissolve the marriage: Supreme Court
Tayyeba Ambareen, the petitioner moved a suit against her husband Shafqat Ali Kiyani demanding dower amount, dowry articles, medical expenses and maintenance for herself and their daughter, on which the family court had dissolved the marriage due to cruelty. The appellate court on Nov 10, 2015 overturned the decree and converted it into khula with the direction to the woman to refund five-tola gold to her husband. The high court also upheld the appellate court decision.
The appeal against the PHC decision was subsequently heard by a three-judge Supreme Court bench. In a judgement, Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar noted that the main issue between the parties was whether petitioner Tayyeba Ambareen was entitled to claim a decree for dissolution of marriage on the ground of cruelty and whether the appellate forum rightly converted the dissolution of marriage on the ground of cruelty to dissolution by way of khula.
The SC noted that the family court stated that the petitioner met the burden of demonstrating cruelty on the part of the husband by citing numerous incidents, and that her testimony was unaffected by her cross-examination. As a result, the family court correctly dissolved the marriage on the grounds of cruelty following a careful review of the evidence.
Justice Mazhar recalled how the family court decision depicted different acts which caused mental anguish and torture to the wife, as only a week after their marriage, the husband started pressurising his wife to arrange money to get a house on rent.
While she was in the family way, the man left her instead of supporting his wife, the court observed. He did not turn up at the crucial time; neither did he pay any maintenance allowance nor delivery expenses, it was recalled.
The Supreme Court set aside the judgments of the high court and the appellate court, on the basis of the observations and restored the judgement passed by the family court.
Law is the same for men and women, no discrimination is allowed, Chief Justice
The Supreme Court rejected the appeal of the Punjab government against the decision of the service tribunal to promote women teachers under the four-level formula in the education department of Punjab.
The Punjab service tribunal’s ruling was upheld by the court. The Chief Justice said that under Article 25 of the Constitution, no one can be discriminated against and that men and women are subject to the same laws.
Justice Syed Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi, a member of the bench, said that there is no distinction between men and women in the law. If the rights of men and women are not separate in the law, then why is the institution making this distinction? He said that now this matter has come to the notice of the court, why not make a single cadre instead of women and men.
Rana Shamshad, the Additional Advocate General, argued that while male instructors received promotions, no female teachers did and the Punjab Service Tribunal gave an illegal order to promote women teachers.
