Protection: ‘Drop the word man from harassment law’

HRCP says women are the main victims of harassment

ISLAMABAD: A representative of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has recommended that the word ‘man’ should be excluded from the anti-harassment laws since women are prime victim of harassment.

Nasreen Azhar gave her suggestion while representing HRCP in a consultative meeting of law ministry on a bill proposed by Senator Farhatullah Babar.

Her suggestion could not get much attention of law ministry and the member of parliamentary committee Senator Kazim Khan said that men are equally threatened from harassment as women and they should also be protected in the law. “Why are you isolating yourself,” he asked.

Azhar, however, held that most of the harassment cases reported relate to women. While talking to The Express Tribune HRCP representative said that most of the people sitting in the committee do not understand women’s issues.

“They don’t know the sensitivities involved in this legislation,” she said. Azhar said that in one way or another around 99 per cent women have been harassed at least once in their lives in Pakistan, then why the word man should not be dropped from the law.

To a question, she said that to discourage fictitious petitions and complaints, men should not be allowed to become complainant in such cases. “As per the current laws, a man can also be a complainant, but it is not understandable for me,” she added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2014.