LAHORE:
The Punjab government should quickly appoint an ombudswoman to deal with cases of sexual harassment, said women’s rights campaigners at a meeting on Friday to review the implementation of the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act of 2010.
A national ombudswoman has already been appointed. “A lot of women are filing cases under the harassment act but they can’t be dealt with effectively until an ombudswoman is appointed,” said one of the participants at the meeting of the National Implementation Watch Committee and Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (AASHA). The law does not require the appointment of a woman as ombudsperson.
The participants also expressed concerns about interference in the process when a case involving person with influence is registered under the harassment law. They noted that the case against Dr Iftikhar Baloch, who was dismissed from the post of principal of the Punjab University (PU) College of Earth and Environmental Sciences for alleged sexual harassment, had yet to be decided even though the alleged crime took place over a year ago.
AASHA Chairwoman Dr Fauzia Saeed had called the meeting, which took place at Allama Iqbal Medical College which, together with Jinnah Hospital, was the first medical institutions in the province to comply with the anti-harassment laws.
The legislation requires every organisation to set up a committee to hear complaints of sexual harassment and hand out penalties.
The ombudsperson is meant to hear appeals against these decisions.
PU Gender Studies Department head Dr Samar Fatima, Sidra Humayun of War Against Rape, Hussain Naqi of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Nabeela Shaheed of the Aurat Foundation also participated in the meeting.
End of AASHA
Dr Saeed told The Express Tribune that the alliance was soon disbanding as it had served its purpose. AASHA was formed in 2001 with three objectives: raise awareness about sexual harassment as a social problem, develop a policy against it, and get legislation passed.
“All three objectives have been met,” said Dr Saeed. “At the beginning of 2010 all AASHA members decided to bridge the implementation gap for two years before ending the alliance.
The work of awareness and implementation needs to be done by everybody. If this alliance continues, the people will keep looking at us to get things done. We want people to work on their own.”
She said that the HRCP was conducting a study on the law and its implementation. “They will study the whole process from the start to the present,” she said.
She urged organisations that have complied with the new law against sexual harassment at the workplace to register at the AASHA website www.sexualharassmentwatch.org
Published in The Express Tribune, December 3rd, 2011.
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Well written. Good reporting.Zero tolerance for harassment.