FM staffer wins sexual harassment case against colleagues after 2 years

Tehreem Muneeba, a Radio broadcaster based in Islamabad was harassed while at work in a studio at Samaa FM in 2018. She had to quit her job after being subjected to harassment.

Muneeba filed a case against the studio staffers for harassing and intimidating her in 2018. It took almost two years of prosecution for the court to decide in her favor.

On May 22 the colleagues were found guilty and a fine of Rs100,000 was imposed on each of seven staff members.

Despite her regular complaints, Chief Operating Officer (COO) Fahd Haroon never paid attention and when another sexual advances were made by the accused on 21.08.2018, instead of taking a strict action, Fahad played the devil’s advocate and preferred to protect the harassers. 

Ironically Fahd is now working as PM Imran Khan’s focal person on information analytics since March 2020 and also happens to be a member of the Pakistan Broadcasting Board (PBC).

The court not only penalized the accused persons under section 4 (4) (ii)(e) of Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace the Act, 2010 but also directed them to pay fine of Rs100,000 each as compensation to the complainant within 30 days of passing of this order through the office of this forum without fail.

Its a shame that Samaa’s management filed a defamation suit worth Rs 500 million against Muneeba after she leveled allegations of sexual harassment. She wonders what will become of it now that her point has been proved right.

While adding more to this controversy Muneeba also claimed that the Samaa FM management had deleted the CCTV footage which was the only evidence of what happened in the FM studio rather than taking action.