Pakistan enacts law outlawing harrassment of women in workplace

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AFP) -- Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari signed a law yesterday that outlaws harassment of women in the workplace and sets punishments of up to three months in prison for offenders, his office said.

The bill, passed by the federal parliament in January, becomes law with Zardari's signature. In addition to imprisonment, lesser punishments include sacking or demotion.

The "president has signed the 'Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace bill 2010'", an official at president house told AFP.

Zardari vowed to give equal rights to women as he signed the legislation in a televised ceremony attended by a small group of women.

"By the end of this tenure all the rights that we enjoy as men shall be enjoyed by women too," he said. "We have to recreate a Pakistan where my daughters can be proud of the fact that they live as equals."

Rights groups have long complained of a rolling back of women's rights in Pakistan. They welcomed the law yesterday.

"It is a great gift to the women of Pakistan and they will now have a sense of security at the workplace," Farzana Bari, activist and director of a women's studies centre in Islamabad, told AFP.

She said that the new law defined what constitutes "harassment" of women and that victims would be able to file complaints before departmental committees set up under the law, and even at police stations.

"The offenders could lose their jobs, get demoted, sent on forced retirement and even pay compensation, if found guilty by the departmental committee," she said.

Under the law, a victim of harassment can now go to a police station to get the offender arrested and if the charges are proven in court, the offender will face up to three months in prison and a fine of 50,000 rupees (US$595), she said.

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