Government officials from the Ministry of Capital Administration Development, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), advocates of superior judiciary and representatives of civil society organizations from all four provinces have resolved to effectively implement the Anti- Sexual Harassment Laws in their respective domains.
Pakistan’s parliament had passed two laws in 2010 namely the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace, Act 2010 and PPC Section 509, which had made sexual harassment a punishable crime.
A center for learning in Mehergarh had since taken the lead in implementation of the laws and had managed to create hubs of resource persons in different sectors to effectively implement the laws through conducting training sessions for the trainers. As many as 30 participants from public and private organizations participated in the latest three-day training which familiarized them with the laws and the mechanism to enforce them. The training took place at Mehergarh’s training facility in Islamabad on September 28-30, 2012.
The participants vowed that they would be the torch bearers to spread the awareness and understanding of the anti-sexual harassment legislation in their organizations and the society. Maliha Husain, the core trainer said that the time had come to shift the focus from victim of harassment to the harasser’s behavior so that we could clean out our society and transform their behavior.
Towards the end of the training the participants exhibited strong understanding of the laws.
Speaking at the event after distributing certificates, Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Senior Joint Secretary Abdul Latif Laghari who is also the Co-Chair of the Federal Implementation Watch Committee, said that they would make Islamabad a model city with the implementation of anti-sexual harassment laws.
