Warden transferred after snake bite case confirmed

Women clerks at four colleges complain against threats of transfer

RAWALPINDI: The warden of the Rawalpindi Government Postgraduate College for Women in Satellite has been transferred after an inquiry into the death of a young student in the hostel showed that the victim had been bitten by a snake.

The 35-year-old hostel warden Quratulain has been forcibly transferred by the college director and appointed at the Waqarun Nissa Girls College.

This way, the college director has ensured that the hostel warden stays with her office in the college despite the fact that no vacancy was available for the warden to fill.



The move has drawn protestations from the Waqarun Nissa Girls College principal who has reportedly refused to keep the hostel warden in the college despite the “special orders” to do so.

Curiously, the warden was not deployed at the college in Satellite Town. The college’s principal had developed differences with the warden and had instead illegally replaced her with her personal maid and assigned her duties.

Following the death of the girl and the transfer, the hostel warden is said to be under extreme mental stress.

Moreover, other women clerks deputed at the four girls colleges in the city have complained that they are being threatened with transfers from their colleges to the college directorate.

In late September, 20-year-old Urooj Fatima had been found dead in her room at the Rawalpindi Postgraduate College hostel under mysterious circumstances. Initial investigations had failed to offer any clues as to what caused her death.

The incident, though, attracted the attention of the provincial chief executive who summoned a report on the matter while it sparked protests from her fellow classmates and dorm residents.



the New Town Police, which had filed a first information report (FIR) for the incident under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), said that Fatima was enrolled in the third semester of the Bachelors of Study (BS) programme at the college.

New Town Police Station SHO Mirza Javed said that the girl’s body had been discovered in the morning with her friends and roommates claiming that she had died after being stung or bitten by a poisonous insect or animal overnight.

Students of the college had claimed that lethargy of the college’s administration in calling the paramedics to treat Fatima was the reason for her death.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2018.