The provincial health minister, Azra Fazal Pechuho, claimed on Saturday that the university student in Benazirabad district who had accused his teacher of sexual harassment is a liar. “I personally got the matter investigated and I have come to know that she [Farzana Jamali, a final year student of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University’s English Department] is lying,” Pechuho, who is sister of Pakistan Peoples Party Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, said while talking to the media in Benazirabad on Saturday.
Her statement has drawn sharp criticism from other political leaders, student organisations as well as human rights activists, who have held several protest demonstrations in support of Jamali over the last few days.
Last week, Farzana had addressed a press conference in Benazirabad district where she had leveled allegations against Prof Aamir Ali Khattak, accusing him of harassing her for the last five months.
“He has been asking me to give him my mobile number and meet him personally in his office,” she alleged at the press conference. Farzana claimed that other students of her department also had similar complaints about the same teacher. According to her, she is the first girl of her village who had fought to be allowed to enroll in a university for higher education.
She said students were being threatened that if they dared to complain, they may face consequences in the form of disruption of their academic career. The student had also accused the varsity’s vice chancellor (VC), Arshad Saleem Arain, of supporting Khattak.
She claimed that when her father, Aijaz Ali Jamali, who is also a teacher, took the complaint to the VC he tried to suppress the matter and got Aijaz arrested by the police by registering a complaint.
The same day, the varsity’s spokesperson, Kashif Noorani, had said that the VC had formed a three-member inquiry committee to investigate the matter. “The committee will submit its report to the VC in three days,” the spokesperson had said, but no report has been furnished thus far.
A day later, the secretary for boards and universities, Alia Shahid, had also formed a four-member committee to investigate the matter. The committee comprised Prof Dr Abdul Qadeer Rajput, Prof Dr Parveen Munshi, Naushero Feroze DC Anwar Shah and deputy secretary of boards and universities Sohail Anwar Baloch. VC Munshi’s name was only added to the committee after backlash from the media that it lacked a female member.
The Sindh High Court, meanwhile, took notice of the incident on September 5 and ordered the district and sessions judge and Nawabshah DIG to conduct separate inquiries within three days. The judge recorded her statement on September 7.
Pechuho’s version
On Sunday, Pechuho told media that the allegations leveled by Jamali against acting chairperson of the English department and VC were baseless.
“She was scolded for remaining absent from classes. In reaction, her family assaulted the teachers.” A police case was lodged against Jamali’s father after he assaulted the teachers and in reaction, the student fabricated allegations against the teacher and the VC, she added.
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