FAISALABAD: A Faisalabad Medical University (FMU) assistant professor who is facing the allegation of harassment appeared before the probe committee and offered to surrender all of his gadgets to prove his innocence. Following a news report about harassment allegation by a girl, the Punjab government had directed the FMU VC to probe the issue according to the provision of the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010.

Sources said the girl who remained a student at the institute, formerly PMC, in 2012-13 and completed her house job in 2014 filed an email complaint on July 3 last and alleged that the associate professor had been harassing her through the Facebook and WhatsApp messages since Nov 30, 2016.

FMU acting vice chancellor Dr Mohammad Ali Tirmizi formed a five-member committee comprising Registrar Hina Ayesha (chairperson), Prof Muhammad Shahzad, Prof Sumera Tahir, Prof Aamir Hussain and Prof Muhammad Sajid to investigate the issue. It summoned the girl on July 12 and she gave evidence including screenshots of messages to support her allegation.

On July 16, the suspect appeared before the committee and denied sending any message to the complainant on any social media website or making telephonic contact. He admitted that the FB account of a group belonged to him but, he claimed, he never received a warning from the FB that the account was logged in from some other device.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2018