KARACHI, Oct 22: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has urged the Karachi University administration to take stern steps against all those involved in harassing a female student.
It also urged the authorities to provide safety and security to the victim, a law student who had gone to the university to give examinations, and her family that were being threatened by the culprits to keep quiet and not to register an FIR with the police.
In a statement issued here on Sunday, the HRCP said that criminal cases should also be filed with the police against all the culprits so that it could act as a deterrent and other such gory incident did not occur in one of the prime educational institute of the city.
It regretted that when the incident occurred in the university on July 28 the university administration instantly denied that no such incident had happened, but when the HRCP sent its fact finding mission which confirmed that such gory incident had actually occurred, and people also raised a hue and cry, the university reluctantly instituted an inquiry.
Now the inquiry report has also found out that such incident did occur and culprits were university staff members and a student. But only one staff member had been sacked while no serious steps had been taken against others, and the student who was involved in the gory act had just been suspended.
The HRCP said that some of the accused had also been involved in a similar incident in the Shaikh Zayed Islamic Centre but unfortunately the administration there at that time pushed the matter under the rug. If stern action had been taken against the culprits, the recent incident could not have happened, the HRCP adds.
It also urged the vice-chancellor to make the inquiry report public. The HRCP said that it was not clear why the vice-chancellor was again dragging his feet and allowing the accused persons the time they needed to pervert the course of justice and terrorise the victim and her relatives and why all the three implicated staff members had not yet been sacked.
