Ombudsperson receives 40 complaints of harassment in seven months

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ombudsperson office for protection of women against sexual harassment has received 40 complaints of different nature of harassment in seven months including two male harassment cases.Talking to The News, the first ombudsperson in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Rukhshanda Naz said the provincial government is committed to make the work environment dignified by effectively implementing the workplace harassment law.Rukhshanda Naz said she had issued notices to all public and private sector departments, institutes and other organizations for forming a three member Standing Inquiry Committee with at least one woman member to address cases of sexual harassment.She said that the organisations had been directed to display the text of the code of conduct in the office for easy access to the staff.The government of Pakistan had passed the “Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010” in March 2010. After some amendment in the law, the “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Amendment Act, 2018” was passed.She said that Ombudsperson is not only for women but men can also file harassment cases.Rukhshanda Naz said they had received many harassment complaints from various public and private sector departments, universities and organisations.She said that 40 harassment complaints of different nature had been received.The ombudsperson added that 18 complaints were in the process of investigation. “The remaining cases were with the federal ombudsperson or in high court or family courts,” she explained.She pointed out that the complaints were in four different categories including Family harassment, Duty Bearers, Ghag and Cyber Crime.“The education department is on top followed by the health department in the number of harassment complaints received by her office,” Rukhshanda Naz said.She said that nine complaints of harassment were received from various educational institutions including the University of Haripur, University of Technology Nowshera, Workers Welfare Board Karak, Workers Welfare Board Bannu, Elementary and Secondary Education department Swabi, Elementary and Secondary Education department Malakand, Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan and private educational institutions in Peshawar and Akora Khattak.According to Rukhshanda Naz, five harassment complaints were received from the health department employees in Peshawar, Nowshera and Malakand. She said three complainants were polio workers.Besides, she noted that one harassment complaint was received from Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Peshawar, two from the Police department, one complaint from a male employee of Central Prison Peshawar. Also, she said many cyber-crime complaints were received in Peshawar, Buner and Parachinar.Rukhshanda Naz pointed out that her office was in touch with the Police and FIA as they were getting many complaints of harassment on cyber or social media, including WhatsApp.

from The News International - Peshawar https://ift.tt/2nl67nZ