
As a faculty member at a public university, I myself feel insecure after this incidence
PESHAWAR: Muhammad Afzal Mehmood, a lecturer of English Literature at the MAO College, was falsely accused of harassment by a student of BS Mass Communication; a claim which the late teacher refuted and which turned out to be unfounded by the college harassment committee assigned to probe into the matter. The college harassment committee submitted the report three months back and the college administration didn’t bother to clear him of the false allegations. The end result is “Pakistan lost a sincere teacher leaving many questions and insecurities behind him in the minds of other teachers”.
Who is responsible for this incident; the student, the harassment committee, the principal or the harassment laws?
To me, the harassment laws are responsible for this. It is now time to make changes to these laws. It is time to ensure if a student cannot prove the allegations made against someone, the person should be punished, both in the form of compensation and imprisonment. Otherwise no teacher in the universities and colleges will take serious interest in classes, marking papers, questions and assignments.
As a faculty member at a public university, I myself feel insecure after this incidence. The same happened two months ago at Peshawar University, where a student went to court against her teacher accusing him that he failed her in a subject. The media reported the news as a harassment case. The court later disproved the allegations and the case was dismissed. Neither the court, university nor the government asked the girl to explain why had she levelled false allegations. This is the reason that such types of students are encouraged as there is no proper “punishment and reward” system. Harassment laws need to be reconsidered.
Amjad Amin
Published in The Express Tribune, October 24th, 2019.
Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.