Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights on Monday rejected a suggestion to amend Women at Workplace Bill which sought punishment for those found harassing women at educational institutions.
The proposed amendment, first presented in 2014, was discarded by the committee after three years of considerations.
MNA Asiya Nasir had moved ‘The Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplaces (Amendment) Bill 2014’, arguing that the educational institutions should also be included in the existing law against harassment.
“Let me tell you that the majority of harassment incidents take place in educational institutions. It is ironic that students at campuses do not come under the laws against harassment,” said Asiya Nasir.
She said she introduced the amendment with the view to cover educational institutions and protect girls against harassment,” she insisted.
Law and justice ministry officials, however, advised the committee that laws against harassment of women cannot be extended to educational institutions.
The officials said President Mamnoon Hussain had rejected a complaint filed by a female student of Quaid-e-Azam University on the grounds that the existing laws against harassment were applicable in government offices only.
The student had appealed to the president, who is also the chancellor of the university, in 2014. The law ministry had suggested that students are not protected under the act and that the university can only penalise errant employees under their own disciplinary rules.
The officials argued that students and other women are protected against harassment under a separate criminal law (Section 509 and Section 454), so there is no need to amend the bill against harassment.
“Lawmakers are here to make and amend laws,” Nasir later commented in reaction to the development. “Do we not need laws for domestic workers too? It won’t be a big deal if we extend the laws to domestic workers and students,” she said.
