Fines for offices in Pakistan’s Peshawar that fail to set up anti-harassment committees

ISLAMABAD: Public and private offices in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar will now be fined up to Rs100,000 for not forming anti-harassment committees at workplaces, local media reported on Tuesday. 
Pakistan reports hundreds of cases of harassment and crimes against women every year. Earlier this year, the public assault of a woman at Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan monument and the gang rape of a mother and her daughter by a rickshaw driver and his accomplices led to widespread public outrage and calls on authorities to ensure the safety of women in public places. 
The decision to fine such workplaces in Peshawar was taken by the Provincial Ombudsperson for Anti-Harassment Rakhshunda Naz on Tuesday. So far, 40 organizations, including schools, banks and health centers, have been fined for delaying the constitution of harassment committees, SAMAA TV reported. 
“The committees have to play reconciliatory roles in harassment cases,” the report read. “They are responsible for taking up problems between complainants and respondents and finding an amicable solution.” 
Naz first issued the orders earlier this year, instructing organizations in the city to nominate three women for the committee and submit their names in the ombudsperson’s office. 
In January 2020, the KP Assembly also passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace (Amendment) Bill, 2020. 
In October this year, Pakistan’s parliament approved changes to the country’s workplace harassment law to widen the meaning of harassment, who is considered an employee and who can lodge a complaint. However, the amendments were only applicable to Islamabad, according to the report. 
After the parliament approved amendments to the definition of harassment, it is no longer limited to just sexual crimes. 
It now includes “any unwanted behavior which creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment on the basis of age, disability, gender, religion or belief, and race or sexual orientation,” the report added.