The Governor’s House on Tuesday contradicted a news item, published on June 7, which said Punjab Governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa had demanded the restoration of a Punjab University professor to his office. A press statement issued here on Tuesday said that the governor, as the chancellor of the Punjab University, never asked the vice chancellor to restore the faculty member to his office who was dismissed after facing allegations of sexual harassment.
It said the governor expressed his disappointment over the publication of the ‘misconceived and misleading’ news item regretting that the governor’s comments should have been sought before the publication of the story. The written response from the Governor’s House maintained that the correspondent to whom the source of the news item related misreported the ‘core’ issues pertaining to the case. The governor, according to the statement, contended that the report falsely alleged that he, during the hearing proceedings of the case, had told the VC about his discretionary powers to restore Dr Baloch, if the varsity failed to do so.
The rejoinder said, “The orders passed by the governor in the wake of the hearing proceedings, attended by the additional secretary (Planning) and deputy secretary (Acad.I), Higher Education Department, VC, additional registrar, principal and dean of Haily College of Commerce and others, negate all flimsy and fake insinuations reported in the news item”.