Student accuses dept head of sexual harassment

HYDERABAD: A final year student of the English department at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Nawabshah, has accused a faculty member of sexual harassment. At a press conference in Benazirabad district on Sunday, Farzana Jamali alleged that Prof Aamir Ali Khattak has been harassing her for the last five months.

“He has been asking me to give him my mobile number and meet him personally in his office,” she alleged. Farzana claimed that other students of her department also have similar complaints from the same teacher. According to her, she is the first girl of her village who fought to be allowed to enroll in a university for higher education.

She said students were being threatened that if they dared to complain, they may face consequences in the form of disruption of their academic career.
The student accused the varsity’s vice chancellor (VC), Arshad Saleem Arain, of supporting Khattak.

She claimed that when her father, Aijaz Ali Jamali, who is also a teacher, took the complaint to the VC he tried to suppress the matter and got Aijaz arrested by the police by lodging a complaint.

The student appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar and other authorities to take notice.

Meanwhile, the varsity’s spokesperson, Kashif Noorani, said the VC has formed a three-member inquiry committee to investigate the matter. The committee will submit its report to the VC in three days, he added.

Last year, in the case of Sindh University student Naila Rind, whose body was found hanging from the ceiling fan in her hostel room on January 1, the Sindh High Court had ordered all the universities in the province to set up anti-harassment cells as per the guidelines of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. However, many universities still lack a functional cell to address complaints pertaining to harassment.

Source: Express Tribune