The federal government has appointed a regional commissioner for dealing with the complaints and harassment cases in consultation with the federal ombudsperson.

A week ago, the regional commissioner imposed penalty of Rs250,000 fine and stopped one year increment of additional director, Institute of Kidney Diseases (IKD), Hayatabad in a harassment case of a head nurse.

Regional Commissioner Bashir Ahmad Khan announced the penalties after seeking approval from the federal ombudsperson in Islamabad, Kashmala Tariq. A copy of the verdict is available with The News.

In the first penalty, it said, one year increments is to be stopped from the respondent doctor (Liaqat Ali) as a penalty for taking benefit of his prerogative by compelling the head nurse to send the female staff to his office by rejecting their applications. He was also charged with using gender insensitive language against the persona of the complainant.

The brief facts of the case are that Ms Shahida, a head nurse at the Institute of Kidney Diseases, filed a complaint of harassment against the additional director IKD, Dr Liaqat Ali. “The head nurse alleged that on April 9, 2018 Romeen, her subordinate nurse, was physically harassed by Sohail, a clerk in the IKD. Romeen reported the harassment case to her head nurse Shahida and she onward submitted the case to director of the hospital Dr Nasir Orakzai by making the victim physically appear before him,” the order stated. It said the victim then filed a written complaint of the case with the director, but to no avail.

“Thereafter, Shahida being the head nurse called media persons to the hospital and narrated the case of physical harassment of Romeen before the media,” it said. It added that after presenting the case before the media the complainant (Shahida) faced harassment and threats by some officials, who wanted to bury the matter.

The regional commissioner stated in the decision that there is evidence to confirm the case of harassment of the head nurse, who had highlighted the issue of physical harassment of another nurse. It said the evidence confirmed that nothing had been by the hospital management to resolve the harassment issue. It added that the harassment issue wasn’t reported to the regional commissioner, which should be done under the law.

The regional commissioner also ordered that all inquiries/proceedings initiated against Ms Shahida after the occurrence of Romeen case be revoked.

The regional commissioner of federal ombudsman has started hearing harassment cases in the province after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government failed to appoint the provincial ombudsperson over the past eight years.

After enactment of Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was required to appoint the provincial ombudsperson under this law.

While harassment-related issues have frequently been reported in the province, the provincial government has turned a blind eye to the commitment made by it before the Peshawar High Court last year wherein it had assured the court to appoint provincial ombudsperson within two months. About a year has passed since then, but the government has yet to implement the order.

Recently, the issue of harassment of female polio vaccination workers surfaced and was reported in local press. A polio worker also released audio-recording of her conversation with an area in-charge to prove her allegation that he had been harassing female workers. However, no action has been taken against him.