Harasser fined, demoted after female colleague files complaint

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ISLAMABAD: A private company in Islamabad has fined and demoted a man, Nadeem Ahmed, who had ‘physically’ harassed his female colleague.

The victim had reported one of her male colleague’s ill-meaning actions to the Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplaces Kashmala Tariq.

The private firm has been given a deadline of 15 days to implement the order according to which he is to be fined Rs100,000 and demoted as well.

According to the details, Nadeem Ahmed had told the victim to stay back after office timings in order to discuss an important matter while not asking anybody else in the company to the meeting. He discussed work-related matters with her for 30 minutes and then walked to her side of the table, touched her cheeks and said that she could contact him if she ever needed any personal favour.

She has also presented inappropriate texts that he used to send her, asking if she was “alone at home”.

In her complaint to the ombudsperson, the victim described being shocked to the extent that she could only leave the room.

She said that she had intended to disclose the incident to the company’s operations coordinator the very next day; however, he was out of the country.

She added that she had refrained from reporting Nadeem to the company’s country director as the harasser enjoyed a close relationship with him.