LAHORE: A sexual harassment case was decided by Punjab Ombudsperson Rukhsana Gilani on Monday.

The complaint [of harassment at the workplace] was against a headmaster of special education centre.

A female teacher complained that one of the headmasters had been harassing her since her appointment at the centre. Whenever they crossed paths, she said, the headmaster would utter ‘sleazy’ poems and once even tried to hold her hand.

She alleged that after he realised that he had been rejected by her, he tried to initiate departmental inquiries against her.

After hearing the version of both parties and investigating the matter, the ombudsperson found the headmaster guilty of sexual harassment and gave an order of his removal from service.

Meanwhile, approximately 128 cases have been filed in the last five years at the ombudsperson’s office — excluding appeals out of which 100 were almost decided with around 47 convictions. Almost 30 cases have been withdrawn in the same time frame and 18 people exonerated from the charge.

Meanwhile, a source in the FIA confirmed statistics, saying that in 2018 around 335 complaints of harassment and blackmailing on social media were filed by women from Lahore. After investigation, 31 of those were finalised as FIRs.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2019