LAHORE: The president of Pakistan has accepted a representation by a former employee of a multinational tobacco company, setting aside a federal ombudsperson’s order declaring him guilty of subjecting a female colleague to sexual harassment, and ordered his reinstatement.
In an order, the President’s Secretariat allowed the representation of Raza Pervez Fateh under Section 14 of the Federal Ombudsmen Institutional Reforms Act, 2013, setting aside the July 24, 2026 order of the Federal Ombudsperson for Protection Against Harassment at Workplace, Lahore.
The ombudsperson had held that Fateh subjected a colleague to sexual harassment through persistent unwelcome verbal and written communication. However, she reduced Fateh’s punishment of dismissal from service to a minor penalty and ordered him to pay Rs200,000 compensation to the complainant within 15 days. She left it to the company to either continue his employment or accept resignation and issue an experience letter.
Fateh had joined the tobacco company as a channel trade analyst on Sept 1, 2023. A harassment complaint was lodged against him on Jan 25, 2025. However, Fateh rejects the allegation, terming it a bid to preempt his own intended complaints against some senior employees.
Following an internal inquiry, he was dismissed from his job on May 13, 2025.
Fateh then moved the ombudsperson against his dismissal, who remanded the case to the company, ordering a fresh inquiry with safeguards, including in-person cross-examination.
The applicant, in his representation to the president of Pakistan, says following the ombudsperson order, he was conditionally reinstated into a disputed entity on Nov 24, 2025 without proper workspace or reporting lines and that his resignation the next day was rejected.
His representation argued that the inquiry committee was illegally constituted, that the remand directions were violated and he was denied physical copies of video and documentary evidence.
It said the “reasonable woman” standard was misapplied while evidence of “consensual communication” was ignored.
The order signed by retired Justice Irfan Qadir, Consultant (Legal Affairs) at the President’s Secretariat, records that the counsel for the respondents (the complainant woman and the company) were repeatedly given the chance to point to any communication, message or evidence showing harassment.
“The learned counsel took pains to go through various pages of the file but despite all that so far, no element of harassment is visible in the material,” it observed.
The president accepted the representation, setting aside the ombudsperson’s order and issued the direction that the petitioner be reinstated.
Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2026
