KARACHI: An airhostess of the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) Shahila Parveen has taken the senior staff members of the airline to court.
She has complained against the defence secretary, the PIA chairperson, the general manager, the human resource director and the chief medical officer to court for issuing her show-cause notice allegedly to victimise her for complaining against the harassment at the workplace.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) had issued them notices to file their comments through the federal law officer by August 22. Parveen had approached the high court challenging the show-cause notice served on her by the organisation’s human resources director.
She said in her petition that she joined PIA in 2005 and started performing her duties as general manager. Later she was placed under charge of the controller at the PIA medical centre Zafar Khaskhely, she added and alleged that the officer started harassing her by objecting to her dressing and using inappropriate language.
The air hostess informed the two judges that on February 16, 2015, the officer’s intents became clear as he called her on the pretext of discussing something important but started misbehaving with her. She complained to the competent authority against him due to which other officers including, Dr AQA Akhund and Dr Naveed Daudpota, started pressurising her to withdraw her complaints.
She also alleged that she was also victimised for refusing to take back the complaint. The authorities deliberately denied her and her family medical care at the PIA health facility, she added. “I was not provided an ambulance on time that resulted in the miscarriage of my baby,” she said. “The respondents are responsible for the killing of my baby.”
She further said that the human resource director issued her a show-cause notice later, seeking an explanation for allegedly making false complaints against the officers all the time. She also pleaded the court to declare that the show-cause was issued with malafide intentions to victimise her for complaining against the officer involved in harassing her at the workplace. She sought suspension of the notice.
After hearing the initial arguments, the division bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro, issued notices to the respondents for August 22. The deputy attorney general was also issued notice to file comments of the defence secretary, the PIA chairperson, the general manager, the human resource director, the chief medical officer and medical centre controller by the next date of hearing.
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