Pakistani woman whose live call to PM went viral demands justice system reform

This photo shows Ayesha Mazhar, a single mother of a three-year-old from Quetta whose live call to Prime Minister Imran Khan went viral. (AN photo)

• During Q&A with PM, Ayesha Mazhar complained about a man who had illegally occupied her house, says her problem was addressed within hours 
• Mazhar says police and judiciary must be reformed in Pakistan so millions like her who are desperate for justice can get some respite

LAHORE: A woman who last week shot to Internet fame after she called Prime Minister Imran Khan during a live Q&A session and complained about a tenant who had illegally occupied her house has called for a reform of the justice system in Pakistan, saying millions like her have no recourse.
Ayesha Mazhar, a single mother of a three-year-old from Quetta, called the PM on Sunday and said a tenant had refused to pay rent of up to half a million rupees or leave her house and was using his influence with the police to prolong her agony.
“The moment I ended my call with the prime minister, I was contacted by police officials who wanted to know my address and promised to resolve my case,” Mazhar told Arab News on Wednesday. “The next day I got the outstanding rental payments, and my problem was addressed.”
While she expressed gratitude to the government, she also called for institutional reforms.
“Do we always have to call the prime minister when we find ourselves in such situations?” Mazhar asked.
She said her mother had bought a house in Lahore’s DHA Rahbar Housing Society which she rented to a man named Imran Asghar in 2019 who turned out to be the brother of a senior superintendent of police and after a point refused to pay rent or vacate her house despite repeated requests. The tenant also got a stay order from a court which “allowed him to occupy the house for an indefinite period,” Mazhar said.
“I wonder how a court can allow a person to do that and turn the real owner of a house homeless,” Mazhar, who moved to Lahore from Quetta, said.
She said she could not move into her own house in Lahore after moving there from another city : “I am a divorcee with a 3-year-old son. Can you imagine what it must be like for a woman to travel to a new city with no shelter?”
Mazhar said that she had lodged a complaint with police but was totally “devastated” when the tenant used abusive language against her at a police station and no officials intervened.
“The situation took its toll on my mother’s health who was diagnosed with cancer,” she said. “I took my mother to see several parliamentarians and even visited media houses, but no one came to our rescue.”
Mazhar applauded Lahore’s former Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umer Sheikh who got her house vacated last December before being transferred. The tenant, however, still refused to pay the rent that had piled up in the last two years and amounted to around Rs.500,000.
Asked about Mazhar’s case, the city’s new CCPO Mehmood Dogar agreed that it was mishandled.
“It was a simple case,” he said. “Her house was illegally occupied, and the tenant was not vacating the premises. However, it became tricky due to the legal technicalities since both parties had filed their cases in the court and we were bound by its orders.”
He added that the police had launched an operation against illegal occupants since the beginning of the year and restored the possession of more than 350 plots.
Police spokesperson in Lahore, Muhammad Arif, said more than 100,000 such cases were reported every year and resolved in accordance with law.
“This was one case where things grew ugly and the victim had to suffer at the hands of our system,” he said, adding that the CCPO had asked all police stations to deal with such cases on priority.
Meanwhile, Mazhar said she hoped the prime minister would do his best to reform the police and judiciary and provide some respite to “millions of people who are suffering and desperately waiting for justice.”