LAHORE - The Lahore High Court (LHC) Friday sought replies from Pakistan Hockey Federation and Director General Sports Board on a petition moved by a female hockey player challenging her removal from the team in return for complaining about alleged sexual harassment.

Syeda Sadia Nawazih, a female hockey player, lost her job after an alleged incident of sexual harassment at the work place. The female player approached the provincial ombudsperson against her coach Saeed Khan over charges of sexual harassment. However, she met another challenge when she was told by some official that the post of the provincial ombudsperson had been lying vacant for a year.

Sadia later approached the LHC through Advocate Rabbiya Bajwa and questioned the unavailability of the provincial ombudsperson. The petitioner’s counsel argued that Sadia was expelled from national hockey team after she lodged a sexual harassment complaint with the provincial ombudsperson against head coach Saeed Khan. She said office of the ombudsperson was established under a special law, The Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010, but the position of the ombudsperson had been vacant for a year.

She told the court that unavailability of the ombudsperson had deprived her of her right to be treated in accordance with the law and have access to justice under Articles 4 and 9 of the Constitution, 1973.

The counsel said that an inquiry committee was constituted to conduct the inquiry, but no proper or formal inquiry was conducted to establish the facts of the case.

Rather the committee refused to fairly exercise its jurisdiction in accordance with the law and acted with a prejudiced mind. It started pressurising her to back out from her complaint. She submitted that she was being pressurised and harassed by the PHF to withdraw her complaint against the coach.

Sadia said that another player, Iqra Javed, was also dropped from the team while she was due to leave for Brunei to represent Pakistan in a sports event. She said she went to the office of the ombudsperson for relief but she was informed that office of the ombudsperson was vacant due to unavailability of the ombudsperson for one year.

She argued that Pakistan, being signatory to Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) under the UN, was bound to take effective steps for the elimination of sexual harassment. Not only she but many other aggrieved women are worried over vacant post of the ombudsperson, she submitted. The petitioner asked the court to order the government to immediately fill the post so that many women like her could get justice. She also asked the court to bar the respondents from taking any detrimental action against the petitioner till final decision on the complaint by the appropriate and competent legal forum. She further prayed the court to set aside her and her colleagues’ dismissal from the team. The hearing adjourned until Jan 16.

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