PESHAWAR – The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) cabinet on Tuesday approved the proposed amendments to the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Amendment) Act, 2017 paving way for the appointment of the province’s first anti-harassment ombudsperson.

These amendments which have been carried out in line with the directives of Peshawar High Court lay down procedures for the ombudsperson’s appointment to proceed with cases of harassment against women at the workplace.

In September, the Peshawar High Court had ordered the appointment of the Ombudsperson and the approval to amendments came during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Perez Khattak and attended by cabinet members, chief secretary and administrative secretaries here.

The government had not appointed an anti-harassment ombudsperson in the province though the ‘Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act’ has been in force since 2010.

Under the amendments okayed by the cabinet but to be approved by the provincial assembly, the word ‘ombudsman’ mentioned in Section 7 has been changed to ombudsperson, while a new provision i.e. Section 7(2) has been inserted into the law stating the search and scrutiny committee will recommend from one from among a panel of candidates to the government for appointment as ombudsperson.

The original Act had left the appointment to the discretion of the government and lacked a detailed procedure for the appointment.

Under the new injunctions, the search and scrutiny committee will be headed by the chief secretary with secretaries of the social welfare, finance, law and establishment departments as its members.

The committee will scrutinise documents of all candidates and recommend to the government a candidate as ombudsperson.

Moreover, the ombudsperson will enjoy all perks and privileges of BPS-21 officer and would retain the post for a period of three years.

Regularisation of Contractual Teachers

The cabinet also agreed to the regularisation of 36,278 contractual teachers hired through the National Testing Service tests during the current government’s tenure.

The regularisation of the employees will be made through an act of the provincial assembly.

Upgradation of Advisers

The cabinet also upgraded the status of advisers to the chief minister Ishtiaq Urmur and Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani to the full provincial ministers’ for performing their responsibilities fully.