KARACHI: Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh has taken notice of alleged sexual harassment of a woman student of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (SBBU), Nawabshah, and directed the DIG and SSP of Shaheed Benazirabad district to file their report within the next three days.
The chief justice on Thursday also directed the district and sessions judge concerned to submit his report during the same period of time regarding the allegations levelled by Farzana Jamali, a final-year student of the university’s English department.
The committee is headed by former Mehran University vice chancellor Prof Qadeer Rajput while its other members are Parveen Munshi, Talibul Maula (Sufi University), Naushahro Feroze Deputy Commissioner Anwar Sher and Board of Revenue deputy director Suhail Anwar Baloch.
Our Nawabshah Correspondent adds: The four-member inquiry committee constituted by Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah arrived in Nawabshah on Thursday and recorded statements of Ms Jamali and her father as well as the SBBU vice chancellor and lecturer who have been nominated by Ms Jamali as accused in her FIR.
Prof Rajput later told local reporters that the committee would submit its report to the CM within the next three days.
Ms Jamali over the past few days appeared before the media to complain that the lecturer had been sexually harassing her for months and the vice chancellor also harassed her when she and her father approached him to seek his intervention into the matter.
She claimed that her father was implicated in a fake case and sent behind bars for his efforts to get the suspects punished.
She said she had descended into a traumatic situation to the extent that she had almost decided to commit suicide at one stage.
On Thursday, she told the media that she was satisfied with the investigation being conducted by the inquiry committee.
She said she expected justice to be restored to her. She said she would not attend her classes at the university until the suspects were removed.
However, her father appeared not satisfied with the committee’s handling of the task.
He said that the CCTV footage of his meetings with the VC and other staff of the SBBU administration on Aug 31 would reveal how badly he and his daughter were treated.
Meanwhile, the district and sessions judge of Shaheed Benazirabad on Thursday adjourned Ms Jamali’s application, filed earlier this month, on the matter to Sept 22 when she informed the court that she had changed her counsel in the case.
Advocate Shahbaz Ali Dahiri would now represent her in the sessions court on the next date of hearing.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2018
