Zubair Qureshi
Federal Ombudsperson Kashmala Tariq on Tuesday directed the Utility Store Corporation (USC) to present the complete appointment and service record of the corporation’s former employee Maimoona Qaiyum Shaikh.
The ombudsperson held the top priority of her secretariat was to ‘grant justice to all the aggrieved working women who have been harassed at the workplace.
Kashmala Tariq has taken up after a period of more than 12 months, the complaint filed by Maimoona Shaikha against the alleged harassment by the USC Chairman Zulqarnain Ali Khan.
The complainant has alleged that she had joined USC as consultant back in July 2019 for a period of three months against a monthly salary of Rs 80,000. Soon after her appointment, the chairman of the USC started harassing her. She alleged that when she refused to ‘oblige’ him in his inappropriate demands, he removed her from job.
During the course of hearing, a USC representative refuted her claims saying that she was sacked over continuous absence from duty. “The USC called her explanation for absent from duty to which she did not respond,”, he claimed adding that later the corporation issued her show-cause notice and removed her as per set procedure.
The complainant’s counsel Syed Pervaiz Ali Shah Advocate said that his client plea was not against the dismissal from job. “We approached this prestigious forum to get justice over harassment complaint so that the accused could be brought to justice as it is matter of dignity of all working women in the country,” he argued.
After hearing the arguments from both parties, Ombudsperson Kashmala Tariq asked for summoning USC Director HR or other official concerned to appear with all the relevant service record of Maimoona on December 16.
