Zubair Qureshi
President Dr Arif Alvi has enhanced the penalty of a man found guilty of workplace harassment. The president has changed the minor penalty of “withholding two increments” imposed by the Federal Ombudsman for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace (FOSPAH) to “dismissal from service.” The president, while rejecting the representation of the Director for Human Resource Management (HRM) in NEPRA, directed his dismissal from service. The president in his decision held that sending text messages to a female colleague, asking her to stay in the office beyond office hours with an ulterior motive, making unwanted advances, and intimidating her to face dire consequences in case of her refusal to assent to his unethical demands constituted harassment, and warranted no leniency. While deciding the case, the president in his decision wrote that statements of the complainant, witnesses, CCTV footage, WhatsApp messages, and the emails established the factum of harassment. He said that the accused had also admitted his guilt by implication and his only grievance before the president was regarding the severity of punishment. “The principle of reasonableness and proportionality demands that the penalty is modified to dismissal as it is commensurate with the gravity of the offence”, he added.
The president rejected the representation filed by Mr Ahmad Nadeem (the accused), Director HRM in National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA).
Earlier, a female Office Assistant (the complainant), had filed workplace harassment in NEPRA alleging that the accused used to call her into his office, discussed personal matters, passed comments on her looks, tried to physically approach her, invited her to have lunch and dinner, and used to send unnecessary and inappropriate text messages. The Internal Harassment Committee (IHC) of NEPRA conducted a detailed inquiry and concluded that the allegations of harassment stood established against the accused and recommended imposing the major penalty of “reduction to a lower post” from Director to Deputy Director. Both the complainant and the accused filed representations with FOSPAH, subsequent to which FOSPAH reduced the penalty of “reduction to lower post” to “withholding of two increments for a period of three years”. Later, both the accused and the complainant filed separate representation with the president against FOSPAH’s decision. The president held a personal hearing of the case, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, in which the complainant appeared with her consul whereas the representatives of the accused and NEPRA appeared.
