The Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010 was a result of decade-long struggle by legislators, women rights activists and civil society. However, after almost six years of its coming into force, provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan have failed to establish the office of Provincial Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace.
Federal Ombudsperson Secretariat for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace was founded back in 2011 and is currently headed by Justice (r) Yasmeen Abbasi. Sindh and Punjab followed suit and formed their provincial ombudsperson offices in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
It has been six years since the law came to force, still the provinces of KP and Balochistan have failed to form provincial ombudsman that deals exclusively with harassment related incidents.
Since Section 8 of the act empowers an employee to choose whether ombudsman or inquiry committee enquires into his complaint, the question now arises that without any alternative platform of appeal in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, what efficacy the anti-harassment laws have for working women in these two provinces. Are they bound to settle for the inquiry committee formed by their organisation with no right to appeal or take the whole matter to a higher platform?
The failure of respective governments becomes more stark in the light of Section 7 of the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010 which bounds respective provincial governments to appoint an ombudsperson at the provincial level. The most important functions and powers of the ombudsperson include enquiring into complaints, hearing of the appeals against minor and major penalties, summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining him on oath, compelling the production of evidence, receiving evidence on affidavits, issuing commission for the examination of witnesses and entering any premises for the purpose of making any inspection or investigation,
Furthermore, the act bestowed upon the provincial and federal ombudsperson same powers as the high court to punish any person for its contempt.
Back in February this year, federal ombudsman spokesperson said that since its inception back in 2011, it has received a total of 339 total cases of which 332 have been disposed-off, and only seven are under process. The year-wise breakup was: 31 cases were referred to federal ombudsperson in 2011, followed by 53 in 2012, 79 in 2013, 32 in 2014, 122 in 2015 and 15 in the first 53 days of the current year. The province-wise breakup of cases is; 124 cases were registered from federal capital, 120 from Punjab, 44 from Sindh, 31 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11 from Balochistan and two from FATA.
“We’ve helped over 3,700 cases of harassment both from public and private sector during past six years. Workplace harassment is still considered a taboo topic and is brushed under the rug”, aid Maliha Hussain, head of Mehrgarh, an organisation dedicated to implementation of the workplace harassment law. “There are many misconceptions about workplace harassment and the people who are involved in it. It has nothing to do with education, expertise, seniority or the repute an individual enjoys. In order to make workplaces safe for women, we have to look impartially into the matter and inquire it fully,’ she said
Maliha Hussain has so far trained more than 12,000 trainers for proper implementation of the legislation within private and government organisations in three-day intensive residential trainings held mostly at Mehergarh campus. Over the last six years, she has conducted over 500 trainings for the members of the inquiry committees and helped them handle difficult cases.
