Quick question. If something happened to you at work tomorrow, in an office in Karachi, Lahore, or anywhere else in Pakistan, would you actually know who to go to?
Most people don't. And when it comes to workplace harassment in Pakistan, that gap between "there's a law for this" and "people actually know how it works" is a bigger problem than it sounds like.
Workplace harassment statistics in Pakistan: the number that should worry you
According to a survey by the Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (AASHA), 93% of women working in Pakistan's formal sector say they've experienced sexual harassment at work. Out of 1,000 women surveyed across the formal and informal sectors, 79% reported some form of it overall, with the number jumping to 93% in formal workplaces specifically.
Now here's the part that really stings. Of the women who go through this, only 17% ever bring it to their office's Inquiry Committee. Not because nothing happened. Because most people either don't know the committee exists, don't trust it, or don't even know it's supposed to exist in the first place.
So let's fix that.
Wait, what's an Inquiry Committee?
Under Pakistan's Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010, every single organization, government, private, big, small, is legally required to set up a 3 member Inquiry Committee. Its whole job is to investigate harassment complaints internally.
The law is pretty specific about who has to be on it too:
- At least 1 woman
- 1 person from senior management
- 1 senior employee (or a union rep if there's a CBA)
If a company genuinely can't fill all three seats internally, it's allowed to bring in outside members. One person from the group also gets designated as Chairperson.
Sounds solid on paper, right? Here's the catch.
No training. No certification. Just... coworkers.
There's no professional qualification required to sit on this committee. No law degree, no HR certification, nothing. It's not really a "job" in the traditional sense, it's more of a duty that gets tacked onto someone's existing role.
That's a big reason things go sideways in practice. Research has found that only around 28% of companies that are legally required to have a functioning committee actually have one that works. Some organizations don't have a committee at all. Others technically have one, but it exists purely on paper and nobody's ever brought a case to it.
And even when a case does get filed, committees usually can't punish anyone directly. They can only recommend action, and that recommendation goes right back to the same management the complaint might involve. You can see why trust in the process is low.
Okay but what if the committee doesn't help?
This is the part almost nobody knows. You are not stuck if your internal process fails you.
There's a separate, government level role called the Ombudsperson (federal or provincial, depending on where you are). This isn't a random appointee either. By law, this person has to be qualified to sit as a High Court judge. Their powers are similar to a civil court's.
You can actually skip the internal committee altogether and go straight to the Ombudsperson if you want to. And if you already went through the internal process and weren't satisfied with the outcome, you can appeal to the Ombudsperson within 30 days of the decision.
There's also a criminal route. Harassment is separately a criminal offense under Section 509 of the Pakistan Penal Code, so in serious cases, filing an FIR is also on the table.
What actually helps if this happens to you
- Document everything. Dates, what was said or done, screenshots, anything you've got.
- Report in writing. A written complaint carries more weight and creates a paper trail.
- Give the internal process a shot, but don't wait around forever. If it's ignored or mishandled, escalate to the Ombudsperson.
- For serious cases, know that an FIR is a real option, not just a last resort.
The real point here
A committee existing on paper isn't the same thing as a workplace that's actually safe. If you don't know who's on your Inquiry Committee or whether it's ever handled a real case, that's worth asking about, today, not after something happens.
And if you've been through this yourself, good or bad experience, share it on daftar.pk. The more people talk about what actually happens when you report something, the less power the silence around it has.