Sexual harassment case: Court seeks report from Bhara Kahu SHO

Woman accuses her father-in-law of sexually harassing her since 2007.

ISLAMABAD:

A local court on Thursday directed the station house officer (SHO) of Bhara Kahu police station to submit a report on a petition filed by a woman seeking registration of a complaint against her father-in-law in sexual harassment case by June 1.

The district court issued the order on the petition filed by *Saira Khan, alleging her father-in-law of sexually harassment. The petitioner prayed that she has been trying to file a first information report (FIR) under section 22-A since her husband left for America in 2007 but to no avail.

Ms Khan, a resident of Bhara Kahu, works for a government corporation . She married F.K. Durrani in 2005 and has two sons.

The complainant said her husband had not contacted her for the last four years. “Since 2007 I am at the mercy of my father-in-law who has been harassing  me sexually,” she alleged.

Khan said after repeated harassment she submitted two applications, in April and September 2010, to the Station House Officer (SHO) of Bhara Kahu. However, the police did not lodge the FIR. Disheartened, Khan then contacted AASHA, a non-government organisation working against sexual harassment. “The NGO administration warned the man but he continued his immoral activities”, she said.

She again filed an application before the Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) in March 2011. She said Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Habibullah Niazi, summoned the woman and her father-in-law to the police station and warned teh man to refrain from such immoral acts who gave an undertaking.

However, the woman alleged that her father-in-law continued to harass her, compelling her to submit another application to the DSP in May 2011. “When the DSP called him to his office he threatened to kill me and my children”. The police is still reluctant to lodge a FIR against him, she said.

Talking to The Express Tribune Bhara Kahu SHO Rukhsar Mehdi said that the petitioner has failed to provide evidence against her father-in-law for registering an FIR against him. He claims the petitioner, in her application, had requested the police to ‘seal’ her house which was not possible in the absence of an evidence.

*Names of complainant and the suspect have been changed

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2011.