Zubair Qureshi
Federal Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment, Kashmala Tariq, Wednesday summoned Chairman of the Utility Store Corporation (USC) Zulqarnain Ali Khan, head of the Human Resource (HR) section of the USC and a number of other individuals in a complaint lodged by a former employee of the USC that she was sexually harassed by the chairman and was sacked for not consenting to his inapproariate moves.
The complainant in her application submitted that she was appointed as consultant in the USC back in July 2019 for a period of three months against a salary of Rs80,000.
The complainant further submitted that the Chairman of the USC after appointing her to the said post offered her his flat to live in the luxurious residential complex Silver Oaks which she accepted reluctantly. She was also given a Suzuki Swift car for pick & drop to the head office of the USC in Blue Area.
“The same evening I shifted to the apartment, Zulqarnain Khan visited me on the pretext he wanted to know if I needed something and if everything was going right. When I asked how entered the house, he said he had a spare key. Then he tried to flirt with me. It was quite shocking that a person of my father’s age could fall to that level and I firmly turned him out of the house and the next day, I also vacated the flat,” accuses the applicant in her application.
Kashmala Tariq while conducting the hearing asked the complainant how she managed to get a job as a consultant in the USC. To this she replied she had dropped her CV and requested the late Naeemul Haque, former Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs who was a family friend. She said she came all the way from Karachi to settle in Islamabad and late Naeemul Haque had recommended her CV to Zulqarnain Ali Khan.
A senior official of the USC Mr Mohsin told the Ombudsperson the applicant was initially accommodated in the Audit Department of the USC headoffice but later finding her incompetent and frequently absent from the office, she was shown the door.
The complainant who has done her diploma from London and MSc in Economics from Karachi further told the Ombudsperson that her qualification was even more than needed for the job but she accepted the offer because she was told by the USC chief that she would be adjusted against a senior post in due course of time.
She also presented before the court some audio evidence that took place between her and a “right man” of the USC Chairman, Gul Hameed Niazi. She said she had been receiving threats from the respondents and in case something happened to her, USC chairman and his close associates would be responsible for that. Kashmala Tariq after hearing the complainant adjourned the hearing until next Wednesday, Dec 9. The complainant was represented by Syed Pervez Zahoor Gillani Advocate, Hafiz Munawar Iqbal Advocate and Shahid Imran Advocate while USC Chairman’s lawyer Intezar Hussain requested the chair a departmental inquiry was underway and in presence of one inquiry another could not be held. To this Kashmala Tariq asked the complainant to withdraw her application from the USC if she wanted to pursue her case at the Ombudsperson..
