KU teacher suspended on sexual harassment charges

Records reveal assistant professor faced similar charges previously as well


Safdar Rizvi August 11, 2023
PHOTO: ONLINE/FILE

KARACHI:

The University of Karachi has suspended an assistant professor and initiated an inquiry against him following a complaint of sexual harassment from a female student against him.

In accordance with the ‘University of Karachi Employees (Efficiency and Discipline) and Protection against Harassment of Women’ policy, Registrar Prof Dr Abdul Waheed issued the suspension order of the accused assistant professor of Urdu Department, following the recommendations of the varsity’s Anti-Harassment Committee and the subsequent nod of approval from the vice chancellor.

The Anti-Harassment Committee convened a meeting wherein a scrutiny of evidence, presented by the security agencies, took centre stage.

This scrutiny cast a revealing light on the accused teacher’s conduct, thus catalysing deliberations on a course of immediate action, which include his suspension.

Meanwhile, revelations emerge regarding the victim and her family, who lodged an official complaint with the security agencies.

The complaint chronicles a harrowing saga of unwanted advances, underscored by a trail of inappropriate messages.

The distressing narrative escalated when the teacher allegedly intruded into the student’s residential sanctuary.

Records show that the same teacher has faced similar charges in the past too, which prompted an earlier inquiry during the tenure of a former VC.

The inquiry committee, at that time, had proposed the teacher’s reassignment to non-teaching responsibilities as a punitive recourse.

However, he somehow managed to escape the action.

The Express Tribune made repeated attempts to reach out to the university’s registrar, Dr Abdul Waheed, but he did not share the varsity’s response.

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