IBA female teachers report discrimination

One of the complainant served show-cause notice over protesting outside executive director's office

KARACHI:

At least two cases of discrimination against unmarried female teachers have been reported in the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi and according to the documents received, attempts have been made to deprive the female teachers from housing facility in the institution.

Initially, steps were taken to evict them from the visiting faculty residence (VFR) and directed to shift to girls' hostel. However, when one of these teachers demanded justice from the institution, IBA served her a show-cause notice over staging protest outside the IBA executive director's office for her rights.

A female faculty member had staged a protest outside the office of Director IBA, demanding an inquiry report into the matter.

According to a senior IBA faculty, women faculty were provided parts of the report instead of the full inquiry report.

In the report, instead of a single person, all the people involved in the decision making process were held responsible. Also, according to the documents, the orders to evict the two female teachers from VFR came from the IBA Registrar Asad Ilyas.

According to the document, the registrar of the IBA suggested to a female teacher that she should get married, after the women teachers raised objections over eviction orders from VFR.

Investigations into complaints of discrimination against unmarried female teachers also continued for several months. However, about a month after the completion of the report, on June 12, only some contents of the report were handed over to the concerned female faculty.

However, IBA official sources said that despite some witnesses, the committee has apparently not found evidence of this allegation.

In this regard, according to the records received by The Express Tribune, IBA Executive Director Dr Akbar Zaidi appeared before the investigation committee as a witness for IBA Registrar Asad Ilyas, who is facing charges of discrimination.

The fact that the executive director appeared as a witness for one of the parties casts doubts on his impartiality in the matter, sources said. Nevertheless, the inquiry committee submitted its report prepared in this regard to Dr Akbar Zaidi.

However, instead of implementing the report received on May 11 and sharing it with the complainant, he raised questions on the report. He contacted the concerned committee through email and asked to clarify some points in this regard and for this the committee was given another three weeks.

The Express Tribune contacted Zaidi but he did not receive the phone call. He was also contacted through SMS to know his position on this matter, but no response was received.

Meanwhile, when The Express Tribune contacted Asad Ilyas and asked his position regarding the allegations contained in the inquiry report, he said, "I am not authorized to talk to you. You should talk to our media department. I have no opinion about this."

In the past too, Ilyas was suspended for two weeks following an inquiry over the rustication of an IBA student Mohammad Gibrail. Several allegations were also levelled against Ilyas by Mashuq Bhatti, an employee sacked from IBA.

In the immediate matter, according to the documents received by The Express Tribune, the case related to "inappropriate conversation and discrimination against women" is dated December 29, 2022.

The only eyewitness of the incident is the Head of Testing Service Sharjeel Hosni. As per the complaint, when a female faculty member entered the registrar's office and told the registrar Asad Ilyas that a person named Shahabuddin Khan had told her on the phone on December 28 that she should vacate her resident at VFR by January 1.

The woman requested that she should be given adequate time be vacate the place so that she can take any other private accommodation of their choice, to which the registrar said that it was not possible, because the matter has been going on for several weeks On this occasion, the female faculty members said why they were being asked to vacate the place and why not the male teachers.

The registrar said that the institution was transferring them to girls' hostel.

The registrar said that a woman was being shifted to VFR along with her husband as men could not stay in the girls' hostel. On which the female faculty asked whether she and her fellow female faculty should also bring their husbands so that they too would not be evicted. To which the registrar said, "maybe you should get married."

Moreover, in the said case of discrimination, a three-member Anti-Harassment Committee headed by Dr Tariq Mahmood conducted an investigation on a formal complaint against the registrar.

According to the documents, IBA Executive Director Zaidi appeared as a witness before the committee, which casts doubt on his impartiality.

In this regard, when Dr Tariq Mehmood, head of the investigation committee, was contacted, he initially said, "this is a confidential information, I cannot tell anything."

On asking more questions, he told the scribe, "do not call me again, if you do, I have a lot of links in intelligence (agencies). I will know who shared my number with you and why you are behind this case."

The following morning, Mehmood sent an apology via SMS.

Apart from this, The Express Tribune also tried to contact the concerned female faculty members to know their position on this situation, but they declined to comment.

However, IBA official sources said that when a formal complaint was made by the concerned female faculty on this matter, IBA changed its policy and allowed them to live in the VFR for a few more months.

Later, one of the female teachers moved from IBA to a private residence. Meanwhile, Dr Qazi Masood, of the anti-harassment committee, when contacted, said, "I am the head of the antiharassment committee. So I cannot comment on anything regarding this matter."

Officials said another committee has conducted an inquiry and its findings will be shared shortly.

Meanwhile, the IBA spokesperson when asked to confirm the allegations in the documents, a one-line message was received saying that it is an internal matter of IBA.