ISLAMABAD: A female officer of the federal government has accused a grade 22 federal secretary of sexual harassment.
Pakistan Today learnt that a female officer has lodged a complaint against a federal secretary of the Pakistan Audit and Account Service under the Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010.
The victim claims to have been subjected to sexual harassment by the National Food Security and Research federal secretary. Despite many attempts to file complaints to the minister and senior officers of the Ministry of National Food Security & Research and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, a formal complaint was not entertained. This led to even more harassment by the accused, she alleged in her application.
She claims that she was physically and verbally harassed by the federal secretary on the official premises of the ministry and through phone calls.
Despite multiple attempts to communicate very clearly that the officer is uncomfortable with the secretary’s advances, he remained persistent, the victim asserts.
She said that the harassment has been mentally, physically and emotionally taxing, making it very difficult to perform official duties in the ministry with the added fear of character assassination under such circumstances. Consequently, the officer had to report back to her parent department due to the unsafe work environment.
She requested the Establishment Division secretary to direct necessary legal action on her complaint under sections 3 and 5 of the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010, through regular proceedings of a duly constituted inquiry committee.
On the other hand, the accused federal secretary denied all the allegations.
