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Regardless of how gender equal the laws on education and work opportunities appear on paper, Pakistan's pervasive harassment culture leaves no opportunity to show women their true place in the male-dominated society. In 2018, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Act was passed by the provincial assembly, which clearly specified that the Ombudsperson will be appointed by the government for a period of three years while the Chairman will be the Chief Secretary, who will head the four-member committee. As per the stipulations of the Act, if an accused is proven guilty, they will either be removed from service, demoted to a lower post, be given compulsory retirement, be dismissed from the service or will have penalties imposed on them. However, despite the general consensus over a zero-tolerance policy for harassment, the power position of the harasser often deters the victims from either speaking up or pursuing the case to completion. According to data obtained by The Express Tribune from the K-P Ombudsperson, a total of 163 cases of harassment have been reported from Jan to Dec 2024, out of which 132 were resolved, 24 were referred, five were active, while two cases were on hold. The report further added that 549 enquiry committees were registered with the Ombudsperson in K-P. The data further indicated that the majority of cases of sexual harassment were reported from educational institutions, stirring a wave of worry among parents, who were worried for the future of their female children. According to Advocate Mehwish Mohib Kakhel, it is an unfortunate reality that the majority of harassment cases are reported from educational institutions, with the harasser often being a 40 plus male authority figure. "While some cases are also reported from offices and public transport facilities like the BRT, most occur at universities and colleges. These cases usually take a long time to reach a conclusion since the perpetrators are in the position to pressurize the victim to withdraw the initial complaint. More often than not female students avoid filing a complaint against the harasser due to family pressure and social and cultural taboos," said Kakhel. "All of this benefits the harasser, who continues to roam around freely," she observed, while further adding that despite the existence of laws which mandate the constitution of harassment committee across all government and private institutions, unfortunately this was not the case in K-P, where there was still a dire need to create awareness on the issue of harassment. Similarly, Dr Darvish Afridi, an expert working on gender, believed that although harassment was a global issue posing a challenge across all patriarchal societies including those in developed European countries, the implementation of laws in developed nations was impressively strong. "In Pakistan however, even when the relevant laws do exist, their implementation is akin to none. In the current context, where sexual frustration among men has emerged as a significant concern, educating people and spreading awareness on the seriousness of harassment should be prioritized. In this regard, parents should regularly engage in conversations with their children, educating them on harassment, while schools too should incorporate information on sexual harassment in their syllabus," suggested Dr Afridi. Talking with The Express Tribune on the matter, Provincial Ombudsperson Rakhshanda Naz informed that they had resolved more than 132 cases of harassment, which ended with a penalty announced to the harasser. "Due to our efforts, the harassment cases will decrease across the province," she claimed.
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