Ambiguity surrounds IBA registrar’s suspension

Faculty clueless whether senior administration official still occupies his office or not

KARACHI:

Suspension of the Registrar of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), despite being sanctioned by the university’s Anti-Harassment committee, has been shrouded in mystery and now the university’s faculty is asking for explanations.

The IBA’s Anti-Harassment Committee in its report submitted to the university’s administration had recommended the suspension of the Registrar, Dr Asad Ilyas, declaring he had misused his authority and indulged in power harassment, for two weeks and also proposed that he tender an apology in the presence of the Executive Director to Muhammad Jibrail - a student who gained prominence, especially on social media, after he had been forcefully expelled from the institute five months ago.

After the report of the Anti-Harassment Committee came to light, Dr Ilyas, the under-fire Registrar, tendered his resignation but the IBA administration did not accept it. Moreover, the university’s administration, after media pressure, released a notification dated 23rd February, on Tuesday, 1st March, according to which Abbas Gilani will look after the operational and financial affairs of the Registrar office during the absence of Dr Ilyas. However, the notification does not mention the suspension of Dr Ilyas neither does it state whether the recommendations of the Anti-Harassment Committee have been implemented.

Frustrated from the complex situation and ambiguity, IBA’s faculty member, Mohsin Butt wrote an email to the administration on 1st March, a copy of which is available with the Express Tribune, seeking clarification as to who was in-charge of IBA’s Registrar position. Butt, had previously written an email to the administration inquiring whether the Registrar had resigned. The contents of both emails suggest that the IBA’s faculty is also not clear about the captain of the institute’s top most administration office.

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The Express Tribune contacted Acting Director HR of IBA, Ahsan Yousuf, to inquire about the mystery shrouding Dr Ilyas’s suspension and why the HR department was silent on the issue, to which he responded that the official spokesperson of the university would be able to answer the question better as he was not in a position to give out any information.

However, when the Express Tribune contacted the IBA spokesperson regarding the matter and inquired who was the current IBA registrar, she immediately responded it was Dr Ilyas.

When asked whether Dr Ilyas had been suspended or his tendered resignation accepted, the spokesperson requested time before answering the query. Once the spokesperson got back to the Express Tribune, she informed that Dr Ilyas had been suspended for two weeks and that Abbas Gilani was acting Registrar for now. The Express Tribune also inquired about the lack of an official notification of Abbas Gilani’s temporary appointment as Registrar, as per the norm, to which the spokesperson responded that she was not aware of such information.

The Express Tribune then contacted Abbas Gilani, the apparent acting Registrar, to find out if he was the acting Registrar, to which he replied that he could not comment on it. A clueless Gillani, at that time, said that he did not know if he was the registrar or not. a clueless.

The Express Tribune learned that the suspended Registrar issued an apology to Muhammad Jibrail through email on 2nd March, a copy of which is available with the Express Tribune. Jibrail, who was reinstated as an IBA student after social media backlash, commenting on the email said that what he had received was a non-apology from the suspended Registrar and it was unacceptable. “Dr Ilyas has signed the apology email, as Registrar.

So it leads me to believe he has not been suspended in fact. Now, I will not engage with the IBA on any moral ground instead I will take this matter to the Board of Governors. If I do not get justice from there, then I will go to the patrons of the university and once I have exhausted all options then I will take this matter to the provincial ombudsman,” Jibrail firmly asserted while talking to the Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2022.