FROM FEAR TO JUSTICE: THE IMPACT OF WORKPLACE HARASSMENT LAWS ON WOMEN'S EMPLOYMENT IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

Despite the passage of the Protection Against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010, workplace harassment remains a significant impediment to women’s full participation in Pakistan’s labor force. It is true that, although the statute has represented a structural change in terms of acknowledging gender-based injustice in dissimilar work horizons, its efficiency is still hampered by cultural oppositions, feeble institutional enforcement, and the lack of structural protection of those who work in informal sectors. This paper critically analyses how the laws on harassment in Pakistan have influenced the employment of women in the country in terms of quantitative and qualitative employment of women (in scopes of participation as well as experiences at the workplace) since the year 2010 and the implications of this situation on the same in the light of the amendment of the Act in 2022 and subsequent amendments to the said law in 2025 by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan at a policy level (i.e. SECP).

Based on the theory of legal interpretation, various forms of case law, and empirical research findings published between 2021 and 2025, the paper addresses three key questions as follows: (1) To what extent has workplace harassment legislation become an effective force to ensure safer employment conditions among women? (2) On what extent has the interpretation of the law, conducted by the judiciary, and implementation, driven by ombudspersons influenced the outcomes of the legislation? and (3) What socio-cultural and institutional factors have remained unchanged and persist in preventing law enforcement transformation? The study combines statistical analysis carried out by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and the analysis provided by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) as well as scholarly work in the form of lived experience of working women in various sectors.

The most recent court voice is the Supreme Court ruling in Mst. Rabia v. Federal Ombudsperson, indicate an increased recognition of gender-based hostility by the judiciary as a more general type of harassment in the workplace, which is not necessarily sexual in nature. Furthermore, the terror that women live in fear of retaliation, damaged reputation, and lack of trust in procedures all find a support in the empirical research, which makes women feel the need to either remain quiet or leave the job. Remarkably, in 2022-2024 only 38% of the complaints of harassment presented to the ombudspersons were anchored in enforceable decisions, which will seem a disturbing incompatibility between law and practice.

Another area in which the implications of employment are explored in the paper are the gendered implications of informal employment, in which it is found out that about 90 % of women in Pakistan are employed without any formal contracts, grievance procedures, and state protection. It also argues that the safety net of laws needs to be broadened beyond the regulatory space supporting formal economy and inserted into the framework of labor inspection, corporate governance codes, education policy, so that effective cultural change could be realized.

In conclusion, the paper concludes that, though the legal framework must and should form necessary starting point, it must be approached in a broader, intersectional manner, so that it can live up to the constitutional declaration of equality and dignity. This paper also attempts to promote the shift in the legal redress into institutional transformation so that the right to work without the fear of insecurity will not be a privilege anymore, but become a pillar to every Pakistani woman.