Lawyers criticise FCC's 'regressive' judgement in workplace harassment case

Lawyers and journalists have raised concerns about a recent ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), in which it set aside an Islamabad High Court (IHC) judgment in a workplace harassment case filed by a National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) employee in 2012. Nadia Sarwar, who was employed at NBP since 2008, alleged that the petitioners, Aqeel Abbas and Usman Shahid, had harassed her by misusing their authority. She alleged that they had forced her to stay in the office after hours and required her to disclose details for applying for medical and other leaves, which would make her “uncomfortable”.

“Besides causing interference in her work and creating the hostile and offensive work environment, the petitioners had also been giving adverse remarks against her performance and also uttered shameful, unethical, scandalous, immoral and un-Islamic words/comments against her,” the FCC verdict noted. The FCC’s Monday verdict overturned a December 2025 IHC ruling that had set aside the president’s order from 2014 and restored the ombudsman’s 2013 order of the two men’s compulsory retirement.