NAWABSHAH: Judicial magistrate-II on Thursday rejected recommendations of the investigation officer of police for cancellation of Farzana Jamali harassment case and ordered him to submit charge sheet against the accused vice chancellor of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (SBBU) and head of its English department.
The judge, Safdar Ali Jatoi, said in his order that the investigation officer had no power to wind up the process of investigation by cancelling the judicial proceedings. He turned down the IO’s summary and directed him to submit charge sheet against both the accused on or before Oct 10.
Farzana Jamali, a final-year student of the English department, had accused the VC and the lecturer of sexual harassment and lodged an FIR against them on Sept 4. The accused had obtained pre-arrest interim bail in the case.
An enquiry committee was also formed by Sindh chief minister after a series of protests by the student, her family, political parties and civil society but the committee headed by Prof Abdul Qadeer Rajput gave a clean chit to the VC and the lecturer concluding that the charge of sexual harassment was not proved against them.
Ms Jamali rejected the committee’s conclusions at a recently held press conference and said that after she went public with her ordeal, the influential accused had her father Aijaz Jamali arrested and then got his brother implicated in a fake case.
She rejected all police allegations against her father and brother and termed them a part of a conspiracy to force her to drop charges against the accused. She said her family were receiving threats that if they did not withdraw the harassment case, they would have to face consequences.
Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2018