PTV anchor quits amid ‘harassment’ row
islamabad — Pakistan Televison (PTV) anchor Tanzeela Mazhar, whose account of harassment and unwanted advances by a senior rocked the media, on Wednesday announced she had resigned from the TV channel, reports Dawn online.
Tanzeela wrote in her resignation, which she also tweeted, that: “Things were made very difficult for me to work and I was facing huge psychological torture every day.”
“Overall, the environment at this office had become absolutely non-conducive and I was being threatened in every possible way to submit to that environment to secure my job and career,” she alleged.
This, she wrote, happened as a result of her constant complaints against PTV’s current affairs director,
Things were made very difficult for me to work and I was facing huge psychological torture every day. Overall, the environment at this office had become absolutely non-conducive Tanzeela Mazhar @TenzilaMazhar
“who made unwelcome advances” at her in 2009.
“[…] After my resistance/confronting [my abuser] on his attitude, I was exploited and put off screen for [a] few months,” she alleged.
The Ministry of Information, which has oversight over PTV, was unable to comment on the matter as it was unaware of the development.
“I resigned because the man in question was reinstated,” Tanzeela Mazhar told Dawn.com.
“Even though our contracts were renewed, we were not being given air time. To take a government salary but not work was unacceptable to me,” she said. “It saddens me that the government did not take this matter up — committees are made for the smallest of matters, but no one came forward to help us on this matter,” she continued.
“When I raised my voice, people responded with [degrading] comments about women, and our character and personal lives, without understanding that what we do in our private lives is a private matter,” Mazhar said while speaking of the reprisals to a social media campaign she ran against the man in question.
“I plan to raise awareness about what harassment is, as most people do not take it seriously until a person has been beaten up or raped,” Mazhar added.