ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Human Rights on Friday said the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Amendment Bill 2022 as amended by the Senate has been passed by the National Assembly.

In a statement, it said the bill was drafted by the Ministry of Human Rights to facilitate increased participation of women in the workforce and to remove lacunas in the protection against harassment law in Pakistan.

The bill increased the ambit and scope of the law to include certain professions and employment models that the current legislation did not expressly mention, and provided protection from harassment to people engaged in all types of work – formal and informal.

The amendment bill would also provide clarity with respect to different kinds of harassment at the workplace.

The bill aimed to amend the definitions provided in the Act, particularly those of “complainant”, “employee”, “employer”, “harassment” and “workplace”, to remove ambiguities that litigants had faced and to increase the scope of workplace to include all forms and categories of work.

The bill also aimed to set timelines for appeals against orders of the ombudsman under the Act.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2022