LHC seeks reply from PHF over female player’s axing

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday sought replies from Hockey Federation and Sports Board Director General on a petition moved by a female hockey player challenging her removal from the team after she complained against 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 of the office she had approached that the post had been lying vacant for a year.

Ms Sadia later approached 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 Pakistan Hockey Federation to withdraw her complaint against the coach.