Sexual harassment – HEC task force set to grill VC

LAHORE – The task force against sexual harassment at universities under the Higher Education Commission (HEC) is planning to question Punjab University (PU) Vice Chancellor (VC) Dr Mujahid Kamran for not taking action against two faculty members allegedly involved in sexually harassing two female students and other corrupt activities, Pakistan Today has learnt.
According to HEC sources, the VC’s repute has been damaged after academic corruption and sexual harassment at the varsity were proved. Even the Punjab government and HEC are concerned at the VC’s unwillingness to take action against the teachers despite clear proofs against them. According to HEC sources, the task force against sexual harassment was established to stop female sexual harassment at varsities.
According to HEC sources, the HEC is planning to ask Dr Kamran to submit details of all faculty members involved in sexual harassment and said that inquiries will be conducted in all 128 public-sector universities of the country, which fall under the HEC. According to sources, PU former Disciplinary Committee head Dr Iftikhar Baloch has allegedly harassed two female colleagues and the PU committee has strong proofs against him.
Sources said that academic corruption charges were proven against PU Institute of Communications Studies director Dr Ahsan Akhtar Naz who was also punished by the PU in 2002 for allegedly attempting to sexually harass masters’ students. He said that the HEC were concerned about a recent incident when a 60-year-old professor trapped his 20-year-old female student and married her last month. According to sources, some PU officials also wrote to the HEC about the issue and teachers were protesting against the incident.
He said that HEC was planning to implement the ‘Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2010’ in 128 public-sector universities. The official said that besides this a number of incidents of harassment in varsities were increasing day-by-day and around 50 cases of harassment were recorded in educational places across the country.
According to policy adopted by HEC, a four-member task force has been formed with senior faculty members of various varsities of the country being its members including Najma Najam as convener and Iftikharun Nisa, Parveen Shah and Wasim Hashmi Syed as members to assure the provision of educational and working environment in varsities free from intimidating, offensive and hostile behaviour.
According to sources, HEC will advice Najma Najam, who is also the wife of the PU VC, to ask him about his silence over the issues of Baloch and Naz. He said that the VC will be asked that how a person is still a chairman when an inquiry committee has recommended his termination and also suggested to register an FIR against him, as academic corruption has been proven against him.
He said that it is surprising that why the VC was hesitating to take action despite the fact that Naz was also awarded a punishment in a sexual harassment case, copy of which is also available with Pakistan Today. Naz was transferred from his department as a punishment and after he became the chairman, students and faculty members expressed their concerns over the issue. According to HEC sources, the task force is planning to get the data of teachers allegedly involved in harassment and make a policy in this regard.
He said that administrative heads of varsities will be also advised to set up committees to eliminate sexual harassment and corruption. A PU senior official said that the VC is helpless as the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Punjab University Academic Staff Association (PUASA) support Baloch and Naz. He said that the varsity had already termed these teachers as “black sheep of the varsity” and also informed journalists that the PUASA is supporting these two faculty members.
The PU official said that actually the VC need the Punjab CM’s support to take action against the two teachers as they had the support of both the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the JI. He said that the JI supported Naz in the sexual harassment case in 2002 and was again pressurising the VC not to take any action against Naz. The official said that Baloch has connections with the PM due to which the VC could not do much against him.
A source in the VC office said that there are enough proves against the two teachers and the VC is expected to take action against them but he needs the Punjab government’s support in this regard. He said that PU teachers, especially females, who were supporters of the VC, were pointing fingers at him due to his silence on the issue.