KARACHI: Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani on Friday said that the provincial government was making best possible efforts to conduct a transparent and impartial probe into the recent incidents of harassment and violence against girl students in the universities of the province.

It was trying to ensure that those guilty of such unlawful acts were brought to justice regardless of their status and position, he said while addressing a press conference along with Universities and Boards Minister Ismail Rahu.

Mr Rahu said on the occasion that vice-chancellors of the universities in the province where the incidents of harassment and violence had been reported in the recent past were sent on leave to ensure an impartial inquiry.

He said that reservations of the aggrieved students and their concerned parents regarding the impartial probe into harassment incidents were being removed by the government.

Minister Rahu says reservations of students and their parents are being addressed

He said the officials, who were in charge of any such inquiry, could be changed to the satisfaction of the concerned parents and students.

He said that a system was being evolved under which a committee comprising people associated with an outside university would be formed to ensure a transparent and impartial probe into any incident of harassment against girl students on the campus.

He recalled that the provincial government had instituted a judicial probe into the case of medical student Namrita Chandani, who had been found dead in her hostel room in 2019 in Larkana.

He said the relevant provincial authorities had been taking steps to ensure that the findings of the judicial inquiry were duly implemented while due precautionary steps should also be taken so that such incidents should not take place in the future.

He said the VC of the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed University Lyari had also been sent on leave as allegations of harassment had been pending against him.

The minister informed media persons that the police had lodged an FIR of the incident of harassment and violence against nursing house officer Parveen Rind from Nawabsah while the hostel in charge and assistant in charge had been suspended after the incident.

Street crime in Karachi

Information minister Ghani said it was wrong to assume that the incidents of street crime would not have taken place had the Safe City project become operational in Karachi.

He said the project had been operational in Islamabad, but the crime incidents had been on the rise in the federal capital. “The chief minister has been making efforts to overcome street crime in Karachi,” he added.

He said the provincial police force was in much better position as compared to what it were in 2008 when the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had come into power in Sindh.

He said the performance of the PPP’s provincial government to improve the working of police should be compared with the output of the past governments in Sindh.

He said targeted killings of police officials had been taking place in Karachi till 2008 as the phenomenon did not exist anymore owing to the efforts of the provincial government.

Mr Ghani expressed remorse that journalist Athar Mateen had lost life earlier in the morning during a robbery attempt in the city.

He said the motorcycle of the killer robbers had been found from the spot. Efforts would be made to bring to justice the murderers involved in the incident, he said.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2022