Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplaces Kashmala Tariq Said sexual harassment can happen anywhere, infect, I could be controlled, when such incidents will be reported, if the reporting is not done, the morale of culprits will be high, we have to relieve people’s fears so that the morale of accused is low, this she said while talking to awareness program on women sexual harassment at workplace as a chief guest of in Dow University of Health Sciences.
On this occasion acting vice chancellor Dow University Prof. Zarnaz Wahid, Principal Dow Medical College Prof. Amjad Siraj Memon and Dr. Faryal Sheikh also addressed to the participants. While vice principal of Dow Medical College Ass. Prof. Shumaila Khalid, Prof. Safia Zafar, Prof. Nusrat Shah and other senior faculty members and large number of students present.
Kashmala Tariq said there have been 330 cases reported in 2019 till to date while 272 cases of sexual harassment were reported in 2018. The number of cases reported earlier was very small.
Kashmala Tariq said there are reports sexual harassment at workplace with women around the world and the procedure to handling it has been clarified and to handle such cases in Pakistan government made a department by the name of FOSPAH, which aim to provide support for such cases.
Further she told to students, if any incident of any kindly occur during viva, theory, practical or exam, it should be reported immediately, she said to handle such cases there should be a committee in every university, harassment committee working in Dow University of Health Sciences, further she said if you do not have faith on committee or the committee not working on your complain, they should lodge a complaint with us, these complaints can be filled by online and we provide legal assistance by contacting them by call within three minutes.
Further she said the tragedy of our country is that there are laws but people don’t know, she said people affected by sexual harassment are afraid to knocking on the low, sexual harassment my occur at school, college, university, hospital or any office place.
She informed we had many universities cases reported, most of the cases between teacher and student, upon which we impose the sentence of suspension or dismissal of the job to teacher.
She said the center of the complaint will be the first institution committee, if you do not trust on committee or committee not caring your case, so our doors are open for everyone.
She added that, we are working on cases like, women to men, women to women, man to women or man to men, she urged on women, when we are talking about equality rights, we have to work on the basis of equality, she said on complaints basis we handle the cases in court and fine to doctor via cancel the license, terminate teacher or police person as well, so do not afraid of students should come forward to deal with any abuse.
She further informed that the case can be filled if someone sending messages via cell phone, calls, email. Our organization provides legal assistance.
On this occasion acting vice chancellor of Dow University of Health Sciences Prof. Zarnaz Wahid said this awareness session provide significant information to our students for throughout life, while Dow University has a policy of intolerance on sexual harassment complaints, if such case reported, we will take action immediately, she said as a chairperson of the harassment committee at Dow University of she can say, this has never happened at Dow University, our teacher are very good in social ethics, the consider the university their second home.
Further she stated , however, if there is any complaint, please contact us immediately to discuss the matter.On this occasion Principal of Dow Medical College Prof. Amjad Siraj Memon said, it is good to open FOSPAH office in Karachi to address such cases, Dow University installed CCTV cameras throughout the university to prevent such incidents and keeping eye on each students as well as teacher, despite this system, we have constituted a harassment committee, which is playing its vital role in university, we are ready to handle any complaint, for this purpose letters have been sent to every office, if such case has been reported, the University has zero tolerance on it.
