Anti-Harassment Act: Focus on provincial-level implementation

ISLAMABAD: The National Implementation Watch Committee (NIWC) of Anti-Sexual Harassment Act will focus on implementing the law at provincial levels besides ensuring appointment of ombudsperson in provinces in the coming year.

NIWC Chairperson Fauzia Saeed in a press briefing on Tuesday shared last year’s progress on the act’s implementation, while also stressing the key points that were to be prioritised in the future.

She said swift measures will be taken to expedite the implementation process at provincial levels.

She added that a meeting will soon be arranged with provincial secretaries for appointing ombudsperson at the provincial level; until then, the provinces might ask federal ombudsperson to deal with their harassment cases.

Although, Mussarat Hilali has been appointed as federal ombudsperson but she is still deprived of autonomous status and a separate office set-up.

The committee plans to take up the issue through an appropriate channel.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 20^th, 2011.