Tanzila Mazhar: The fight against sexual harassment

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View more details by clicking the year.

2017

  • January 2017: Tanzeela took to Twitter revealed about PTV’s current affairs director, Agha Masood Shorish, “who made unwelcome advances” at her in 2009. She said that she was put off screen after confronting him for his behavior. Tanzeela shared screenshots of personal chat, alleging the perpetrator of sexually harassing her and Yashfeen.
  • Her colleague, Yashfeen Jamal, also accused the director of making sexual advances towards her.
  • The man in question termed all the allegations baseless and defamatory and said he would urge the management to release findings of the report to clear the confusion.
  • TV anchor and Tanzeela’s colleague Imran Hassan replied in one of the tweets that harassment law is to protect women and asked her to not abuse the law for their personal gains and to stop playing with PTV’s image.
  • Another PTV staffer said that for the last many years some of the anchors – including the above two – had been provided with more on-air opportunities in primetime as well as financial benefits than other anchors. In a way, he questioned their complaint against Shorish.
  • Both anchors resigned from their jobs as they filed cases against the said individual way before the matter was revealed. Contracts of Tanzeel and Yashfeen expired in December 2016 and January 2017, respectively.
  • The accused, Agha Shorish, was put on forced leave after the investigation began in December.
  • Both the anchors approached the federal ombudsman to hear their case. The first hearing of the case was fixed for January 9.
  • Tanzila tweeted about the insensitive nature of inquiry at PTV. She wrote, “In an inquiry on my complaint of harassment against masood shorish, the PTV committee asked “didn't you leave your job if you were harrassed?”
  • A five-member inquiry committee – consisting of officials from the PTV and the information ministry – started probing on November 24, 2016, and submitted its report on January 26.
  • January 20 2017: Following her complaint in January, the PTV management had issued a circular stating that ‘certain’ PTV employees were using social media to comment on matters that were currently being inquired into officially. “Such comments must be removed or deleted within 24 hours of issuance of the circular, failing which strict disciplinary action will be taken,” the circular read.
  • Jan 20 2017: Women lawmakers of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) took up the issue of alleged harassment of women at PTV and submitted a call-attention notice in the National Assembly.
  • The Express Tribune reported that the accused was penalised in 2016 after the federal ombudsman found complaints filed by five female anchors to be genuine. The then President of Pakistan Mamnoon Hussain not only upheld the decision in December 2016, but also ordered his removal from service. In 2017, new harassment cases were also reported.
  • PPP MNAs Dr Nafisa Shah, Shazia Marri, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Beelam Husnain, Shahida Rehmani and Dr Shazia Sobia through their call-attention notice wanted the federal minister for human rights to brief the House on the situation.
  • Jan 22 2017: Tanzeela expressed her dissatisfaction with PTV management’s investigation and their failure to take strict action against the abuser, during Express News’ talk show To the Point with Mansoor Ali Khan.
  • Jan 23 2017: Both the anchors were taken off air by PTV for 'defaming' the organization and publicly discussing the issue, during the course of an internal investigation.
  • An official of the information ministry who was aware about consultations of the investigating body said both the anchors made it difficult for them to release the report after they took to TV and social media about the case, which is why they had to stop and only release the report after proper examination. Another senior PTV official of the PTV said that the anchors might have preempted that the report was giving ‘clean chit’ to the accused, and so they started questioning the way they were quizzed.
  • Jan 24 2017: PTV’s Controller Current Affairs Habibur Rehman issued a letter stating that both the anchors are banned immediately as anchors as well as participants in the PTV News. The notice further stated that no organization could afford such insulting and defamatory behavior of anchors in spite of their being on the payroll of the PTV. An internal inquiry was already underway, headed by a female officer of the information ministry with authority of the judicial magistrate.
  • January 26 2017: The inquiry committee submitted its report to the PTV managing director.
  • According to The Express Tribune, State Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said that “nobody is delaying (the report) but the chair of the committee wanted to write a dissenting note.”
  • February 1, 2017: Women lawmakers in the National Assembly demanded to know why no action had been taken against the culprit in so long.
  • February 1, 2017: Tanzeela tweeted a video questioning people who try to justify harassment.
  • February 2, 2017: Responding to a calling attention notice, moved by PPP’s Shazia Marri, State Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the inquiry committee looking into the complaint filed against Pakistan Television’s (PTV) head of current affairs is not biased in any way. She responded to concerns regarding the fairness of the inquiry committee, raised by women lawmakers a day earlier.
  • When Shazia Marri disputed the minister’s stance, taking issue with a notification from Jan 23 that banned both anchorpersons from appearing on PTV, the minister contended that ban was not related to the harassment complaint lodged by them.
  • Ms Aurangzeb maintained that she had personally removed three members of the harassment committee who had asked demeaning questions to Tanzeela and Yashfeen, and replaced them with officials – one woman and two men – from the information ministry. This, she claimed, was the reason for the delay in the finalisation of the committee’s report. The minister also highlighted training programmes she had initiated at PTV in order to sensitise staff on preventing harassment.
  • Jan 29 2017: The inquiry committee investigating the case failed to finalise its inquiry report within the prescribed time period. The timeline provided under Section 4(4) of the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2010, the committee should have submitted the report by the end of Dec 2016 or early Jan 2017.
  • February 5, 2017: The accused also filed defamation charges against Tanzeela and Yashfeen in retaliation.
  • February 7 2017: Both parties, the accusers and accused resumed their duties after meeting with State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb and PTV chairperson Ataul Haq Qasmi.
  • The management of PTV also renewed the contracts of the two anchors.
  • A senior PTV producer had told Dawn that three key figures, including a federal minister, wanted the abuser to get a “clean chit”. He said that the inquiry report had been amended at least six times to make it favourable to the accused, which was why it had not been finalised in time.
  • February 27 2017: Tanzeela tweeted that it was futile to pursue the case she had filed and the only option she had left was to resign. The anchor said she was disappointed by Maryam Nawaz and her party’s claims regarding the respect of women.
  • March 1, 2017: Tanzeela resigned from her job again after the contract renewal. She shared that the environment was not conducive for her to keep working at PTV. She was being paid but was not given any work. The psychological torture became unbearable for her. She also stated that she was being threatened and pressured into giving in to the situation at her workplace to secure her job and career. The perpetrator was reinstated and shared her disappointment with the government with respect to her issue and that no committee was made to ensure a fair investigation for the case. The issue damaged the fight to tackle sexual harassment at the workplace.
  • On her Twitter account she wrote, “PTV is being highjacked by Perverts.i did my bit to improve things alas moral curroption won over morlas I wil cherish my working with PTV.”
  • November 17, 2017: PTV sacked its suspended director of current affairs, Agha Masood Shorish, following allegations of sexual harassment and misuse of authority by multiple staffers.
  • DAWN reported that a total of five inquiries had been initiated against Shorish, including three for sexual harassment. PTV's 14 producers had also filed a complaint against him in the Islamabad High Court, and the issue was also taken up in the National Assembly. The Information Ministry issued a notification for his termination after participants of a meeting chaired by the then Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi decided to remove officers who were bringing a bad name to state-owned organisations, were posted even after retirement or had caused financial harm to them. Shorish retired 7 years ago after reaching the age of superannuation.

2018

  • October 20, 2018: Tanzeela wrote a personal essay for GEO’s website. In the essay she stated that during the two years of her ordeal, the internal inquiry was merely an eyewash, she was bullied and threatened, and mentioned how the director was much later sacked but not for harassment, she and her colleague Yashfeen dealt with two defamation lawsuits — criminal and civil; she had to tell her story to the probing committee and then to a courtroom, and has been labeled by her offenders.

2019

  • August 20, 2019: Tanzeela Mazhar said that after three years of her complaint against harassment at PTV, she received the inquiry report on approaching Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection Against Harassment (FOSPAH). She tweeted that the report was declared secret document. Tanzeela requested PTI’s government to help her get justice and also noted that she was denied justice by PTV following the political influence of a few people in the PML (N) government.
  • October 9, 2019: Tanzeela tweeted about appearing in court to face the case of criminal defamation even after almost three years.
  • October 19, 2019: Tanzeela wrote about the anti-harassment law for Independent Urdu
  • October 22, 2019: Court hearing of Tanzeela’s case took place. She tweeted about attending the hearing here.
  • November 16, 2019: Another of Tanzeela’s case took place. She tweeted about it.“Isloo raining, it’s not about rain coat but appearing before court in rain. Another hearing in defamation case. 3yrs seems an unending process.Harassment seemed an unending process, fighting it is even worst it opens multiple battles. #Harrassment #MeToo #Defamation #BlackMailing”
  • November 23, 2019: Tanzeela tweeted about another hearing.

2020

  • February 6, 2020: Tanzeela tweeted that she appeared at the Federal Ombudsman Secretariat for Protection against Harassment to argue her right to challenge the inquiry report by PTV. She considers the inquiry to not have been conducted fairly and in due course of time. She even mentioned that the report was not shared with her until July 2019.Tanzeela shared that she argued her caes on her own, with her husband by her side. She also added that she would share each and every detail of her case when the due legal process gets completed and has deemed the system to be manipulated.
  • September 15, 2020: Tanzeela's appeal against PTV's report was taken by the ombudsman for another hearing. The report was supposed to be concluded in 30 days however it took three years for her to get it.

2021

The court refused to accommodate the medical concerns that Tenzeela Mazhar is facing. Tanzeela is pregnant and nursing a fractured foot. Upon request to not appear in one of her hearings due to its proximity with when her child is due, the judge told Tenzeela that he would issue her arrest warrant if he found her absent.