Student suicide

The death of a private university student in Punjab has once again placed the spotlight on how academic authority is exercised and challenged within education institutions. Muhammad Awais Sultan, a 22-year-old Pharm-D student, ended his life on December 19 by jumping from the fourth floor of his university building.

In response, Punjab School and Higher Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat has constituted a high-powered inquiry committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the student's death. At the centre of the controversy are allegations made by the student's family and classmates, as well as by protesting students, that Awais was denied permission to sit an examination due to low attendance in a single subject - a decision that reportedly threatened his entire semester despite his fees having been paid. Students have further alleged that he faced humiliation at the hands of the university administration. Attendance requirements are a legitimate part of academic regulation. However, their enforcement must be consistent and transparent, accompanied by clear avenues for appeal. When administrative decisions carry severe academic consequences, institutions have a responsibility to ensure that students are not left without recourse. The absence of effective redress mechanisms often leaves students helpless and anxious about their academic future. It also raises an uncomfortable question about student suicide and the conditions under which young people reach such irreversible decisions. Such suicide is rarely the result of a single event. It is often the outcome of prolonged institutional pressure. Yet most universities in Pakistan continue to treat mental health as peripheral.

The inquiry committee must therefore look beyond procedural compliance. It must ask whether the institutional environment contributed to a situation in which a student saw no viable alternative to ending his life. Establishing such links is uncomfortable, but avoiding them would render the exercise hollow.