LAHORE, June 28: The Punjab Assembly on Wednesday formed a special committee with a consensus, headed by Education Minister Imran Masood, to probe allegations of “sexual harassment” against the Government College University Faisalabad vice-chancellor.

The consensus emerged when Sheikh Ijaz of the opposition “offered to swear on the Holy Quran” to prove veracity of his claim that the vice-chancellor was morally and financially corrupt and allegations of sexual harassment against him were true, alleging that the Punjab governor was protecting the official for unknown reasons.

He was provoked into swearing on the holy book by Education Minister Imran Masood who read a report prepared by the Governor’s House exonerating the vice-chancellor of any wrong doing. The minister, quoting the report, said that the girl went to VC’s room to get her hostel room changed, and on being refused she leveled allegation of “sexual harassment.” Once the allegation was leveled, he said, local politics, which had its own mechanism, took over the events.

At this point, Sheikh Ijaz, prime mover of the motion against the VC, swore on the Kalima that he had nothing against the VC. “Being an old student of the same college, I am committed to the honour of my alma mater,” he said in an emotive tone and added: “We all have daughters and sisters, and should be sensitive to the issue.”

He said that he had brought the Holy Quran to swear on it that he believed allegations against the VC were true, but the provincial government was helpless because the VC enjoyed the backing of the Punjab governor.

He contested the report saying that a bureaucrat currently serving the Governor’s House had prepared it. This would send a wrong message to the people about the safety of their daughters and sisters in educational institutions.

The MPA also showed some papers to the house to prove that how the VC granted huge university contracts to the company he had formed in partnership with someone, and forced a contractor to employ his daughter as consultant at a hefty salary of Rs50,000 per month.

How could such a man be allowed to head an educational institution only because he enjoyed the support of a provincial high-up? Directly accusing the Punjab governor of backing the VC, he said: “The governor also belongs to Faisalabad and he should be sensitive to the plight of local people.”

After his emotionally charged speech, many members from the treasury and opposition benches chimed into supporting him, and demanded an independent inquiry into the allegation. Some of treasury members supported Sheikh’s claim that the VC had a bad reputation and should not be heading a respectable institution like the university.

The atmosphere in the house became so charged that even the education minister could not put up any defence of the report prepared by the Governor’s House, and he himself made a request to the speaker to form a special committee to investigate the matter, which was obliged.