PESHAWAR, April 27: Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Jamal Khan, conducting a judicial inquiry into alleged sexual abuses of students in the City Government Higher Secondary School No. 3, has sought detailed information about principals , teachers and staff members of the school serving there since 1975.
The judge, who was appointed inquiry officer by the provincial government last month, issued a letter on Monday to the director of the Higher Secondary Education and principal of the GHSS No. 3 giving them some directives.
The letter says: "Names of all those principals, teachers and staff members, along with their tenures, who have remained posted at GHSS No 3 since 1975 up to Dec 31, 2003 may please be provided in addition to the addresses of retired principals, teachers and staff members beside those posted elsewhere in the province."
It is added that names of those staff members who are presently serving at the school may also be provided so that their proper and timely service could be effected for required purpose. The inquiry officer has also issued a letter to the director of The Archives Library here and has directed him to provide different issues of a local Urdu newspaper wherein stories regarding the scandal had appeared.
Mr Jamal Khan was appointed the inquiry officer under section 3 of the West Pakistan Tribunal of Enquiries Ordinance, 1969. The terms of reference of the inquiry are: background and causes of incident; fixing of responsibility on each score, if any; and any other recommendations.
Under the notification, the inquiry should be conducted within 20 days. However, due to some legal hindrances the inquiry could not be started last month. The issue had surfaced in September last year and the government had transferred all the staff members of the said school.
The concerned five staff members, including three teachers, were also placed under suspension. One of the teacher had allegedly been sexually abusing the students for the last more than two decades.
The issue was debated in the provincial assembly few months back and the government claimed that the inquiry conducted by the sub-committee on schools and literacy had not probed the issue properly. The government had promised that judicial inquiry of the issue would be conducted.
On Sept 27, 2003, the NWFP Assembly referred the issue to the standing committee on schools and literacy which directed the sub-committee to inquire into the issue. The sub-committee was headed by Habibur Rehman and had three other members, Ms Farah Aqil Shah, Khalid Waqar Chamkani and Mukhtiar Ali.
Earlier, a committee of parents had conducted an inquiry in September last and had also examined owners of various hotels situated near the school. However, sources said instead of submitting the original report to the education department the committee submitted a very short report in which the issue was diluted to a great extent.