Amendment bill for bringing university students, domestic workers under ambit of law rejected

Bill also proposed to change title of the legislation ‘Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010’ as the law applies to both genders but the title suggests that the legislation is only for women at workplace

Islamabad

National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights on Monday rejected an amendment bill of ‘Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010’ moved by MNA Asiya Nasir that suggested to bring university students and domestic workers under the ambit of the law.

The amendment bill also proposed to change the title of the legislation ‘Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010’ as the law applies to both men and women but the title suggests that the legislation is only for women at workplace.

Responding to the proposed amendment, representative of the Ministry of Law and Justice and National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz said that the law is designed to deal with the relationship between employer and the employee of an organization. For all those, who are not the employees of an organisation, the Pakistan Penal Code Amendment 509 criminalizes any such behaviour and they can go to police for protection against any such act.

NCSW chairperson said that changing the title would divert the focus of the act which was originally created to provide protection to the women at workplace. The committee was told that to address suggested changes, a new legislation would have to be introduced in the Parliament. 

The Chairperson Standing Committee Babar Nawaz Khan rejected the amendment bill but directed the NCSW to establish a mechanism where university students and domestic or home based worker can easily report and fight the cases against harassment.

The committee also rejected an amendment proposed by MNA Saman Sultana suggesting bi annual reporting by NCSW so that performance of the Commission could be assessed after every six months. NCSW Chairperson Khawar Mumtaz explained to the committee that majority of the projects, underway in the commission extend to a year or more. She said that results can only be shared in the annual report. The Committee rejected the amendment bill but the Standing Committee chairperson directed the NCSW to submit report on the cases of violence against women to the committee on biannual basis.

The committee members were also briefed by the Foreign Office representatives on the measures taken to highlight Kashmir issue at the international level. They expressed their dissatisfaction over the measures taken by the government and directed the Foreign Ministry to hold regular meetings, briefings and tours of the diplomats. They asked the Foreign Office to invite human right watchdogs in the country and take them to the Line of Control to brief them about the situation.

Director General Foreign Office South Asian Desk Dr Faisal briefed the Committee members about the activities of the ministry in this regard. He said that Foreign Office is conducting regular meetings with the diplomatic community. He said that they have been in contact with the international human rights watchdogs like Amnesty International and have urged Medecins Sans Frontiers to treat the victims of pellet gun in Indian held Kashmir. He said that more than 200 people in Indian held Kashmir, mostly women and children, have been blinded by pellet gun shots and around 1200 persons have suffered partial blindness.

Dr Faisal said that Pakistani delegations have visited major cities of different countries including Geneva, Washington, New York, Brussels, Paris, Azerbaijan, Turkey, China and United Kingdom whereas visits to Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Russia in this regard are in the pipeline.