LAHORE, July 16: Federal Ombudsman for Harassment at Workplace Mussarat Hilali has urged the Punjab government to immediately appoint the ombudsman for harassment in the province.

Provincial governments had agreed to appoint the ombudsman for harassment but have yet to do so, Ms Hilali told reporters during her visit to the Children Complaint Office of the Punjab Ombudsman on Monday.

She said that children and women urgently needed an Ombudsman Office in the Punjab in order to promptly redress their grievances and complaints and for elimination of the menace from the society.

She said that so far her office had received 96 harassment complaints out of which 75 had been redressed. She urged reporters to play its role in projecting the importance of Ombudsman’s office and also urged courts to transfer harassment cases and complaints to her office because according to the law now it was not their jurisdiction.

Praising the working of Children Complaint Office (CCO) in the Punjab Ombudsman office, she said that her office would launch a special awareness campaign for girls in collaboration with the CCO.

Earlier, Punjab Ombudsman Khalid Mehmood discussed issues with her and assured her of all out support in order to redress harassment of complaints in Punjab while Focal Person Ehsan Ghani briefed about the working of CCO.