ISLAMABAD: A sub-committee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education, headed by MNA Hamid Hameed, on Thursday formed a high-profile committee having representation of the education ministry, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and police to investigate the boy rape case that took place in a hostel of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) last month.

The sub-committee held its meeting in the Quaid-i-Azam University here and showed its grave concern over the rape case.

It formed a high-profile committee under the leadership of Additional Secretary Education Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani having members from the FIA, IB and police to investigate the incident and the role of the university administration before and after it.

The committee will finalise its report within two weeks and pinpoint the role and negligence of the university officials concerned.

Officials of education ministry, FIA, IB and police to file report in two weeks

It will also investigate as to who had filmed and recorded the statement of the victim boy and shared it on social media.

The sub-committee members, including MNA Ali Nawaz Awan and Sadaqat Abbasi, were of the view that the IIUI had mishandled the said incident.

Last month, a boy (an outsider) was raped in a hostel by two students of the IIUI, as the hostel administration had thus far failed to stop entry of outsiders. The IIUI security officials also recorded statement of the victim on next day of the incident, which was later spread on social media.

The committee members said the IIUI staffers illegally spread the video of the boy.

When the matter came to limelight, the university administration said that FIR of the incident could not be registered as the victim was not forthcoming. However, when the issue was highlighted on social media, the university administration got an FIR registered four days after the incident.

During the meeting, IIUI representative said the university had already taken action and security guards and hostel staffers had been suspended while two guilty students were rusticated.

The committee said there should be a regular liaison between the federal universities and law enforcement agencies to promptly tackle any rape, harassment and drug-related case.

The additional secretary education told the meeting that there should be a helpline linked with Rescue 15 in all the universities for students and staffers to report any harassment case to the police. The committee agreed with the suggestion and directed the universities to take steps in this regard.

Committee member MNA Ali Nawaz Awan said there was no proper check on various types of harassment taking place in universities.

When contacted after the meeting, Mr Awan said the sub-committee had decided to treat the IIUI rape case as a test case and it would propose reforms to stop harassment cases in universities.

He said the high-profile committee would finalise its report within two weeks and also propose steps for stopping such incidents in the future.

The MNA from Islamabad also proposed that after the report was submitted, members of the NA Standing Committee on Federal Education should meet the president of Pakistan, who is chancellor of the federal charted universities, to implement a comprehensive policy in all the universities to stop harassment cases.

Earlier, the sub-committee also discussed the issue of encroachments on the Quaid-i-Azam University land and formed a committee under the QAU vice-chancellor to propose solutions to resolve the issue.

The members of the sub-committee said they would play their due role to get QAU land retrieved from illegal occupants. MNAs Ali Awan, Sadaqat Abbasi, Andleeb Abbas and Mehnaz Aziz attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2021