BAHAWALPUR/BAHAWALNAGAR: Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Kamran suspended a lecturer of the Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences at IUB Bahawalnagar sub-campus for his alleged involvement in the sexual harassment of a female student.

According to an IUB press release issued on Friday, after suspension of the lecturer, an inquiry against him had been launched and action would be taken if he would be found guilty.

The press release said the VC had taken serious notice of complaint of the female student at Bahawalnagar sub-campus and suspended the lecturer immediately.

The VC said there would be zero tolerance on harassment and immediate action would be taken if any employee was found involved in it. In this regard, the VC said an anti-harassment committee was working at the IUB as per the policy of the Higher Education Commission.

Girl approached police after varsity’s bid to suppress matter; suspect involved in other harassment cases

It may be mentioned that after the complaint of the female student, B Division Police Station in Bahawalnagar registered a case against the lecturer and arrested him.

Meanwhile, the suspension notification, issued by the IUB, added that the aggrieved female student had also filed her complaint of sexual harassment against the lecturer with the anti-harassment sub-committee of Bahawalnagar sub-campus. The committee had been directed to submit its report with the VC within 30 days.

The district police said the suspect faced charges of sexually harassing, abusing and slapping a female student. The victim approached the police when the anti-harassment cell of the IUB campus tried to suppress the matter instead of taking action, Dawn has learnt.

The FIR registered on Thursday said the lecturer would often send inappropriate videos to the student on her WhatsApp number, invite her for a date, touch her body on the pretext of searching and slap her when she resisted. The report said the suspect was involved sexually harassing a number of other female students over a period of time. It said the university did not take action on the matter after which the student had to approach the police.

Requesting anonymity, another student of the same department told Dawn that she was also sexually harassed, abused and tortured by the suspect for the past several months. However, she said that neither the AHC nor did the director of the Bahawalnagar campus take any action against the lecturer despite her parents showing evidence to the director in the month of March. Instead of taking action against the lecturer, the administration sent her to another teacher for her lectures. After this, the student alleged, the lecturer started harassing her more severely.

While confirming the allegations of the said student, university sources said the lecturer was found guilty in an inquiry conducted by the anti-harassment cell in March 2024 on the written complaint of the student. However, instead of giving any severe punishment to the lecturer, he was temporarily suspended and reinstated later.

A letter, issued by the university on March 22, a copy available with Dawn, said the lecturer was suspended for three months without pay for harassing the female student. According to the letter, the committee found the lecturer guilty in its inquiry.

However, the university sources alleged that after several weeks of delay on the part of the administration, the student approached police for action. The B Division police said action could not be taken against the lecturer in March as the university administration had withdrawn the student’s complaint, saying that they would approach the police after a departmental enquiry. Later, the university administration did not make any contact with the police, the police said.

Director Campus of IUB, Bahawalnagar campus or any member of the AHC was not available for comments. The university sources told Dawn about three other complaints the anti-harassment committee had received against the same lecturers.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2024