PESHAWAR: Members of both treasury and opposition benches in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday pushed the government for developing a mechanism to prevent harassment of female students in universities, as the house witnessed a heated debate over a recent harassment case at the University of Malakand.

Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, who chaired the session, announced the formation of a special house committee to probe the harassment case and recommend action.

The panel will have representatives from both sides of the aisle, with its terms of reference to be formulated soon.

The debate on the harassment of students began after Housing Minister Dr Amjid Ali highlighted the University of Malakand incident on a point of order.

Speaker forms panel to probe harassment case at University of Malakand

He said the University of Malakand had always been ranked high in the country due to high educational standards, but the recent harassment case of a female student by a teacher had raised serious questions about the safety of girls on campus.

The minister demanded the formation of a special committee by the speaker to look into the matter to ensure exemplary punishment for the harasser, who, he said, defamed the noble profession of teaching.

Member of the opposition JUI-F Rehana Ismail insisted that harassment of female students was not limited to the University of Malakand and instead, the “evil practice” was reported in other universities of the province as well.

She alleged that she had evidence of female students’ harassment at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Peshawar, which had some male staff members.

The lawmaker demanded that the government to establish a centralised system at the provincial level to prevent student harassment in educational institutions.

MPA Abdul Salam Afridi denounced the harassment of students on campus as a shameful act and called for legislation to prevent and control such acts.

He said the harassment cases in universities increased after teachers were empowered to award the maximum marks to students in the semester system of examination introduced a couple of years ago in the name of reforms.

The lawmaker said a university should engage teachers from other universities for checking exam papers.

MPA of the opposition PML-N Subia Shahid condemned harassment cases in universities, especially the one reported at the University of Malakand.

She said if the harassment of female students didn’t stop and exemplary punishment was not awarded to culprits, then the people would stop sending their daughters and sisters to universities.

“People enrol their female family members in universities for higher education and not to be harassed by teachers,” he said.

The speaker criticised lawmakers for not pinpointing the loopholes in laws and the system and said it was their prime responsibility to make laws to eliminate harassment and other flaws in the system.

The treasury members also criticised the arrest of MPA Ali Shah in Islamabad and registration of terror cases against him and urged the speaker to issue production orders for him.

The chair adjourned the session until March 3.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2025