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Thursday March 28, 2024

KP goes without ombudsperson for five years

PESHAWAR: Disturbed by the five years long delay in appointment of ombudsperson by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, a non-governmental organisation, Da Hawwa Lur, has started a signature campaign for a petition to get the vacancy filled out. The working women of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are still deprived of the legal right

By Akhtar Amin
August 03, 2015
PESHAWAR: Disturbed by the five years long delay in appointment of ombudsperson by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, a non-governmental organisation, Da Hawwa Lur, has started a signature campaign for a petition to get the vacancy filled out.
The working women of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are still deprived of the legal right to complain against sexual harassment five years after the law to prevent harassment of women at workplaces was passed.
No working woman of the province was able to file a complaint about sexual harassment as the provincial government is yet to appoint the ombudsperson to receive and decide the complaints.
Da Hawwa Lur, has taken the initiative for the urgent appointment of the ombudsperson. It has been working with the alliance against sexual harassment for lobbying and drafting of the law.
After adoption of the sexual harassment law in 2010, the organization has been working on its implementation and creating awareness among the members of the media, students, teachers, local communities, private and government institutions.
Shawana Shah, general secretary of the organisation, told The News that she had started the signature campaign on the petition for the early appointment of the ombudsperson. She added that the campaign would continue till August 11.
The petition will be presented to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan on August 12 at his Bani Gala residence in the presence of the members of the civil society organisations.
Shawana Shah said the petition has been signed so far by the members of EVAW Alliance, Women Action Forum, Mehergarh, Aware Girls, KP Working Women Union, Khwendo Kor, Shirkat Gah and Blue Veins.
“There is a great need for ombudsperson in the province due to the increasing number of sexual harassment cases,” she added.
It is astonishing that the provincial government has failed to appoint the provincial ombudsperson to take up and hear women’s complaints. Owing to non-availability of proper forums such as provincial ombudsperson and the three-member inquiry committee that was supposed to be set up within all the departments and institutions, the working women often remain silent.
The women also lack knowledge on how to get help when faced with such a situation.
In December 2011, a case of sexual harassment had surfaced in the provincial government’s Probation and Reclamation Department, but due to non-availability of the ombudsman the women officers approached the Peshawar High Court to seek justice. The female probation officers of the department had accused the director of the department of sexual harassment.
In March 2010, the federal government passed two laws against sexual harassment in the workplace. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act amended the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, making workplace harassment against women punishable with imprisonment of up to three years or fine of Rs500,000, or both.
The new law defines sexual harassment in a better way and provides for enhanced punishment under Section 509 of the PPC.
The Sexual Harassment Law requires displaying the code of conduct in an organisation, forming a three-member inquiry committee and holding awareness seminar for its staff.
Though the Act makes it mandatory that “Each organisation shall constitute an inquiry committee within 30 days of the enactment of this Act to enquire into complaints under this Act,” many organisations still do not have such a committee. According to the Act, the committee shall consist of three members, including at least one woman.
The law imposes penalties like withholding promotion or increment, stoppage at an efficiency bar in the time-scale, and recovery of the compensation payable to the complainant from pay or any other source of the accused.
Major penalties include demotion to a lower post or time-scale, compulsory retirement, removal from service and fine. The law also says that a part of the fine can be used to compensate the complainant. There is need for publicising the law and making the women aware of its benefits. Most women and young girls who have to go to workplaces using public transport face such problems, but do not have information where to file their complaints.
However, there is no such authority to take action on complaints at the provincial level though the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010 says that the respective “governments shall appoint an ombudsman at the federal and provincial levels.”
In March 2010, a national assembly for women was marked at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat where Musarat Hilali, now a judge of the Peshawar High Court, was appointed as the federal ombudsperson to take up cases of sexual harassment.
On the same day it was also announced by the prime minister that every province was bound to appoint an ombudsperson to deal with cases of sexual harassment.
The ombudsperson in Punjab and Sindh provinces were appointed while the governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan didn’t take any interest in the appointment of ombudspersons.