UoB scandal victims urged to testify before BA panel

Balochistan Assembly committee tells students their names will not be disclosed

QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly’s committee investigating the University of Balochistan (UoB) scandal has urged students – who had faced sexual harassment at the hands of some university staff members – to appear before the panel to record their statements.

The committee has promised the students and witnesses that identities would be kept secret and the culprits would be taken to task. The committee held a meeting presided over by its chairperson Mahjabeen Sheeran and reviewed all aspects of the case.

MPAs Shakeela Naveed Dehwar, Sanaullah Baloch and Malik Naeem Bazai attended the meeting and requested the victims to file their statements with the committee.

“Names of all the victims and witnesses will be kept hidden for their safety and our doors are open until we punish the goons who ruined the status of the UoB,” read a statement issued after meeting.

The members of the committee unanimously decided to bar the university administration from new hiring, transfer and postings until the case was resolved.

The chairperson of the committee directed the university’s administration to cancel all recent orders and submit a report to the panel in its next meeting.

FIA presents report on UoB scandal in BHC

“The parliamentary committee expressed indignation over the University of Balochistan administration not registering an FIR against the identified and unidentified staff involved in harassing and blackmailing female students,” the statement read. “The authorities should register an FIR on an immediate basis.”

The scandal had come to light about a month ago when the Balochistan High Court (BHC) directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate reports of students being harassed on the campus

The FIA later discovered that male and female students were being blackmailed by some staff members through ‘objectionable’ videos of them, recorded through CCTV cameras hidden at various places on the campus including its washrooms.

The UoB Vice Chancellor Dr Javid Iqbal stepped down after being accused of involvement in the scandal. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2019.