Incidents of sexual harassment against female students are on the rise in universities. Two such incidents have been reported in Sindh University and Karachi University and Bahauddin Zakaria University, Multan where an Assistant Professor has been dismissed for sexually harassing a female student without punishment.
A similar incident was also reported in Haripur University which has been suppressed. In Haripur and other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, women are facing sexual harassment, which is preventing them from receiving an education.
Public Health and Nutrition Department Dr Amjad Khan allegedly sexually assaulted a student HB* (name withheld for identity) who came from Azad Kashmir to pursue higher studies at Haripur University. Her parents have stopped their daughter from pursuing a further education after she lodged a written complaint against the professor and the matter came to the notice of the parents.
The alleged sexual abuse of a first semester student in the Public Health and Nutrition Department of Haripur University came to light when the student submitted a petition to the Vice Chancellor in which she accused the head of the Public Health Department, Dr Amjad Khan. of harassment.
Vice Chancellor Dr Anwarul Hassan Gilani formed a three-member inquiry committee comprising of Dr Abid Farid, Professor and Dean of Basic and Applied Sciences, Dr Shafique Ahmed, Professor Biology, and Dr Sadaf Raja, Associate Professor Department of Education.
The committee initiated the inquiry on the victim’s request. However, Dr Amjad Khan’s close friend and former registrar Dr Shah Masood Khan pressured the victim student and her parents of further disgrace on both sides and the victim student was not allowed to appear before the inquiry committee.
The committee contacted Assistant Professor Dr Amjad Khan and shared WhatsApp messages and other records. Amjad Khan also gave his answer to the committee and strongly denied the allegations. The committee also raised apprehensions over the student’s mental health and said she was under stress and suffering from depression. However, according to the records, the victim was an intelligent student with more than 900 marks in her intermediate exams.
Dr Abid Farid, Convener of the Inquiry Committee, when contacted, confirmed that the inquiry had taken place. The only female member of the inquiry, Associate Professor Sadaf Raja, declined to comment, saying the Registrar should be contacted. Acting Registrar of Haripur University, Dr Riaz Mohammad, was contacted and said he has been on leave for several days and no inquiry report has come to him.
The family sources of the victim confirmed that the student did FSC and later with the help of passed students contacted Dr Amjad for admission in nutrition. They said she met a woman named Sabira who agreed to arrange accommodation in a hostel. Within a month of admission, the girl was taken to Peshawar without approval of her family. When they expressed their displeasure, she told them she had gone to Havelian.
It was later learned that the girl had been taken to Peshawar. Sources close to the girl’s family said that the she filed a complaint but in the meantime, a man from Mirpur was asked by Dr Amjad to intervene and withdraw the application.
It is to be noted that earlier Vice Chancellor of Haripur University Dr Anwar-ul-Hassan Gilani has hired an assistant professor and made him an associate professor, who was expelled from Bahauddin Zakaria University, Multan after being found guilty of sexual harassment.
According to a notification issued by Bahauddin University on Jan 6, 2020, a three-member committee was formed and Dr Wasif Noman Ansari, Assistant Professor of Forestry Management, was charged with sexual harassment and blackmail a student. After the recruitment of Dr Wasif Noman in Haripur University came to light, there was intense pressure from teachers, students and parents, after which the recruitment was canceled.
The students of Haripur University have written a petition to the Federal Ombudsman for Sexual Harassment Kashmala Tariq which demanded that Assistant Professor Dr Amjad Khan, Head of Public Health and Nutrition Department of Haripur University, also abused the student. However, instead of taking a full statement from the victim and her family and assuring them of action against the accused, the matter has been settled at the university.
Mehnaz Rehman, director of the Women’s Foundation, says that in order to overcome the growing problem of harassment of women in offices or educational institutions, laws have been enacted to give women a sense of security,
The Sexual Harassment Act in 2010 also included Article 509, under which harassment of women in any institution can be filed by filing a formal application. She said there must be a harassment committee in any organization and a woman as a member in this committee. The government has also set up a regular Ombudsman for Harassment at the federal and provincial levels to deal with such cases.
Vice Chancellor Dr Anwarul Hassan Gilani was contacted who refrained from taking a stand and asked for positive reporting about the university. Dr Amjad Khan was contacted but he did not give any comment and shut the phone.
