It is no bed of roses for a woman working in the male-dominated public sector. Most women have to work twice as hard as their male counterparts to be appreciated.

But for Mussarrat Nahid Imam, Director of Visual Arts at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA), who has devoted over three decades in service to her department, the trumped-up charges levelled against her were a smear on an otherwise unblemished record.

Things began to go wrong for Ms Imam when in 2013, Mashud Ahmed Mirza, the joint secretary at the Ministry of Information, was given acting charge as director general of PNCA.

According to a judgment issued by former Justice Yasmin Abbasey, the federal ombudsman for protection against harassment of women at the workplace, Mr Mirza was unfamiliar with the working of the department and “created obstacles... by abusing colleagues”.

Mr Mirza then took Ms Imam to task for not issuing an NOC at a time when she was not in the country and someone else was working in her place.

She was charge-sheeted and a departmental inquiry was instituted against her. Even though she challenged the inquiry before the Islamabad High Court, she could not get relief and was found guilty of misconduct and had her increments withheld for a two-year period.

Even a complaint moved by her against Mr Mirza was rejected by the department on the grounds that it did not fall within the definition of harassment under the act of 2010. However, the ombudsman noted that if Ms Imam was “guilty of disobedience... why they (PNCA) waited so long and consider it best to dig out all previous incidents after [she had moved her complaints]”.

Noting that Ms Imam had replied to all the allegations levelled against her, the ombudsman overturned the decision of the departmental inquiry and restored Ms Imam’s increments.

Dawn’s ‘Eye-Witness Account’ segment features accounts of individuals who have experienced adversity or have been affected by a miscarriage of justice.

All accounts are verified as far as possible by Dawn’s editorial team. Readers are encouraged to send in accounts of similar incidents that may have befallen them, so that attention can be called to such problems and they can be addressed with due debate in the public eye.

Readers can send their accounts to re.isb@dawn.com.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2015

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