A Pakistani woman had been making every effort for the last two years - -- from approaching courts to police--to get  Rs 472,000 (PKR) from her tenant who was the brother of a high-ranking police officer in Pakistan’s Punjab province. However, her complaint was resolved only after she got to talk to Prime Minister Imran Khan on a live TV programme. 

In 2019, Ayesha Mazhar, who is a widow, rented her home in Lahore to Imran Asghar, whose brother Zeshan Asghar, at the time was posted as Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) in the same city. However, Imran Asghar later refused to pay rent and illegally occupied her house, she told PM Imran Khan in the programme.  

Narrating her ordeal, she said she and her mother--who was a cancer patient and later died fighting the case-- were trying to get her house vacated. Meanwhile, Imran Asghan’s brother was transferred to a different city, and with the help newly appointed SSP, she got her house back in December 2020. However, even then her former tenant refused to pay the outstanding rent. 

Ayesha, who lives in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, had to travel frequently to Lahore, contacting police officers to politicians, get her money back from Imran Asghar. Despite all these efforts, she claimed that no one helped her. On the other hand, her former tenant filed a case in court and got a stay order on the payment. 

However, in the end, she took a chance by calling the country’s prime minister. Imran Khan during a live TV show where he directly takes calls from the public and responds to them. 

She narrated her story to Khan during the call and deplored the fact that how powerful people misuse the system to exploit the public. 

Soon after the call, the clip of the emotional ordeal of the pain she suffered went viral on the internet, prompting action from the authorities. 

Dawn reported that the prime minister’s secretariat later directed the case to Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP). 

“Due to the intervention of the IGP, the outstanding amount of Rs472,000 has been paid by the former tenant to the aggrieved lady Ayesha Mazhar,” Punjab Police tweeted later. They also informed that the civil case her former tenant had filed was also withdrawn by him.