Law · Workplace rights
Pakistan’s workplace harassment law is stronger on paper than it has ever been. The machinery for enforcing it is, in at least one province, not currently operating.
The Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010 established the framework: employers must constitute inquiry committees, follow prescribed complaint procedures, and display the code of conduct. Amendments since have broadened it considerably.
The most consequential expansion is definitional. Harassment now includes discrimination on the basis of gender even where the conduct is not sexual in nature. That change is easy to overlook and difficult to overstate.
What the expanded definition actually captures
Under the original framing, a complaint generally had to involve conduct of a sexual character. A great deal of what makes workplaces hostile to women falls outside that description: being passed over for assignments, excluded from decisions, subjected to differential scrutiny, or spoken to in ways that would not be used with a male colleague.
Those behaviours are now capable of constituting harassment under the Act. In principle a woman denied opportunities on gender grounds has a statutory remedy she previously did not.
The practical consequence for employers is that a compliance posture built around preventing sexual misconduct is no longer sufficient. Promotion decisions, task allocation and management conduct all now sit within the scope of the legislation.
The gap between the right and the remedy
A statutory right requires an institution to enforce it. The Act’s design routes complaints through workplace inquiry committees, with the Ombudsperson as the appellate and supervisory authority, the office that gives the law teeth where an employer’s internal committee fails or is compromised.
The position of Provincial Ombudsperson has remained unfilled since May 2025, when the last officeholder’s tenure ended. The consequence is a mounting backlog and complainants left without timely recourse, with the absence of an appointment significantly slowing resolution.
A vacant office is not a neutral state. Every month it stays empty, the practical value of the right it exists to protect declines.
Delay is not a procedural inconvenience in harassment cases. Complainants typically remain in the workplace they have complained about, or have left it and lost their income. Evidence degrades, witnesses move on, and the pressure to withdraw compounds with time. A remedy delayed past the point of usefulness is functionally a remedy denied.
What this means if you need to complain
The internal route still operates. Employers are required to constitute an inquiry committee, and a complaint to that committee remains the first formal step. Where an employer has no committee, that failure is itself a breach of the Act and worth recording.
Documentation carries disproportionate weight here. Dates, times, what was said or done, who was present, and copies of any written communication should be recorded contemporaneously and stored somewhere outside the employer’s systems. Complainants frequently lose access to work email and devices at precisely the moment the record becomes necessary.
Where the internal committee fails and the appellate route is not functioning, the ordinary courts remain available, and conduct amounting to a criminal offence can be reported to police independently of the workplace process. Neither is a substitute for a working Ombudsperson, but neither is foreclosed by the vacancy.
Legislation continues while enforcement stalls
Provincial assemblies have kept legislating. A Harassment of Women at Workplace (Amendment) Bill 2026 has been under review by a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Assembly panel, continuing the pattern of refinement.
The pattern is familiar from other areas of Pakistani law, where the courts have moved faster than administration, the Supreme Court’s decision restoring women’s inheritance rights and overturning rulings that had stood for 71 years being a recent example of substantive advance.
Legislating is visible and politically rewarding. Filling a vacancy is neither. The result is a statute book that advances while the institutions meant to give it effect are left understaffed, and the distance between the two is where the law’s actual value is decided.
Common questions
What counts as workplace harassment in Pakistan now?
Beyond conduct of a sexual nature, harassment now includes discrimination on the basis of gender even where the conduct is not sexual, a significant expansion of the Act’s protective scope.
Which law governs this?
The Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010, as amended. It requires employers to constitute inquiry committees and follow prescribed complaint procedures.
What is the Ombudsperson’s role?
The Ombudsperson acts as the appellate and supervisory authority above workplace inquiry committees, the recourse where an employer’s internal process fails or is compromised.
Why is the Ombudsperson position vacant?
The post has remained unfilled since May 2025, when the previous officeholder’s tenure ended and no successor was appointed. The result is a growing backlog.
Can I still file a complaint?
Yes. The internal inquiry committee route remains available, and an employer with no committee is itself in breach of the Act. The ordinary courts and, where a criminal offence is involved, the police also remain available.
What should I document?
Dates, times, what was said or done, who was present, and copies of written communication, recorded as events happen and stored outside your employer’s systems, since access to work accounts is often lost.
Does the law protect against non-sexual discrimination?
Yes. That is the substance of the expanded definition: being excluded, passed over or subjected to differential treatment on gender grounds can now constitute harassment under the Act.
