Karachi:The University of Karachi and Islamabad based non-government organization Oxfam Pakistan arranged an orientation session on women empowerment, gender justice, and harassment at the Dean Science Council Room, KU.
The orientation session for chairpersons and inquiry committee of the University of Karachi on the laws and mechanism pertaining to workplace harassment was organized by the Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization KU in collaboration with Oxfam Pakistan.
While briefing the participants, Oxfam Pakistan Gender Specialist Sartaj Abbasi shed light on the Harassment Act 2010 and the amendments made in the act and the Higher Education Commission Pakistan policy on harassment and said that the purpose of this session is to aware the members regarding the issue which unfortunately has been reported in society very frequently.
“This event is in connection to the memorandum of understanding recently signed between the KU and Oxfam Pakistan. As per this MoU, we will arrange training sessions on women empowerment, harassment and gender justice as suggested by the KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi and today heads of 20 departments of the varsity are taking part in the first training session.”
He mentioned that the members of the harassment committee, chairpersons of departments, and focal persons must be fully aware of the harassment laws and HEC policies and it is pertinent to organize training sessions regularly.
Meanwhile, the KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi said that the KU has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against harassment issues and no room is available for whoever will be involved in such incidents on campus. He shared that these sessions are meant to eradicate harassment incidents from society.
“The KU administration has already directed the Central Harassment Committee to investigate harassment cases or incidents whenever reported and send its report to the administration. The administration will take necessary actions according to the recommendations of the Committee”. Later, a question-answer session was also held at the end of the session.