The government on Wednesday opposed an amendment in the Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act as proposed by Pakistan People’s Party Senator Farhatullah Babar.
Babar had proposed a fresh amendment to the anti-harassment law which would also be applied to educational institutions.
The PPP stalwart suggested that the law should not only be confined to workplaces, citing the example of Quaid-e-Azam University where a teacher sexually harassed a female student. The teacher could not be terminated because of legislative lacuna as the Anti-Harassment at Workplace Law is not applicable in such a situation.
However, Law Ministry Secretary Raza Aslam on November 11 said to a Senate Committee on Law and Justice that such an amendment would disturb the overall scheme of the existing laws.
“Instead of patching up the existing laws, a fresh legislation should be carried out to achieve the desired purpose,” Aslam said.
Committee Chairman Senator Kazim Khan noted that the law currently lacks the definition of ‘harassment’.
“There is a need to expand the law’s ambit in order to protect women across society,” he said.
Kazim asked the Law Ministry to conduct further deliberation over the amendment bill and discuss all kinds of harassment, including harassment of students, women at workplace, hospitals, during travel and other places, during the next meeting.
The committee urged the Law Ministry to hold further consultations over the proposed amendment with all the stockholders on November 14.
I would humbly suggest Senator Kazim Khan to re-read the law so that he may find out the definition of harassment. I think the law is holistic enough to include all the "workplaces" including universities, offices, etc. And if they still don't find the "definition", I agree with Senator Raza Aslam that a fresh legislation should be proposed for that purpose.
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