On 07.12.2023 Bahria University, Islamabad organized an awareness seminar on ‘Elimination of Harassment’ as part of the Federal Ombudsperson Secretariat for Protection against Harassment (FOSPAH) 16 Days of Activism campaign. Ms. Fauzia Viqar, Federal Ombudsperson, was the Chief Guest.

The seminar began with a presentation delivered by Ms. Meher Jamy, Law Officer FOSPAH on the mandate and performance of FOSPAH. In particular Ms. Meher informed the audience about the types of harassment actionable by FOSPAH, the procedure followed in complaints of harassment and the recently launched helpline of FOSPAH which now allows persons aggrieved of harassment to access relevant information via call and WhatsApp.

In her address Ms. Viqar apprised the audience about the poor gender indicators prevailing in Pakistan across four key categories, namely, economic participation and opportunity; political empowerment; health and survival; and educational attainment. She noted that Pakistan has a low female labour force participation of around 23%, the primary causes of which are the absence of a conducive working environment and the pervasive harassment of women in public transportation.

In the question answer session that followed the students mainly inquired about the initiatives that FOSPAH is taking to eradicate harassment and the protections that it offers to complainants from adverse actions.