Standing up: Senior AIOU professor accused of sexual harassment

Faculty members complain to VC; registrar says formal complaint yet to be filed.

ISLAMABAD:

A senior professor at Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad has been accused by his colleagues of sexually harassing his subordinates and female students.

According to sources, in a meeting of over 25 faculty members held to discuss academic affairs, a senior professor accused her superior in the Department of Secondary Education of immoral behaviour. The professor lashed out at the accused professor as the meeting started. “She accused him of misbehaviour and kick-started a protest against him,” said an assistant professor who attended the meeting. According to the source, her colleague jumped to second her. “This time we will not let the issue subside; we must bring this man to justice for sexually harassing subordinate professors,” he said, quoting the other professor.

Sources said the professor was accused of sexually harassing female colleagues and students, which caused an uproar in the meeting. Faculty members banded  together and accused their superior  of having a “bad character and discriminating against students”.

The 25 participants of the meeting left the academic block and went to AIOU Vice Chancellor (VC) Nazir Ahmed Sangi’s office to record their protest with the top management. They demanded the accused professor be removed from his post and action be taken against him, a source said. Sangi listened to their concern and requested them to give him time to probe as a meeting of the executive council was to be held later that day.

When contacted, AIOU Registrar Muhammad Bashir Chaudhry said the VC had yet to receive a formal complaint. The VC did not attend his cell phone despite a text message.

Conversations with various people at the Department of Secondary Education revealed that the professor in question has earned a distinction for harassing female colleagues over the years. Complaints to AIOU’s senior management have not yielded results so far.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the accused calls female students at odd times and has deliberately made their presence mandatory while checking theses or research papers. “For instance, once a panel of external supervisors approved a student’s thesis with some corrections and noted that no other meeting was necessary but the professor changed the minutes of the meeting and recommended a re-viva,” said the source.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2013.