“We will set ourselves on fire if the chief minister does not order action against the officials responsible for giving us steroids,” the students told a press conference at Lahore Press Club.
Those who attended the press conference included Ayesha Qazi, Bushra Butt, Aqsa Rashid, Aqsa Nawaz, Mariyam Maula and Zeba Manzoor.
They accused former PU sports director Mansoor Sarwar and Sports Additional Director Shamsa Hashmi of forcing the students at the behest of Vice Chancellor Mujahid Kamran to use the drugs.
They said most of the university athletes who had won medals over the last two years had consumed steroids. They named some of the students and said they should be given dope tests.
They said many girls who were given steroids had developed medical complications. They said those who refused to take the medicines were told that their admission would be cancelled.
They requested the chief minister to form a committee to investigate the alleged malpractices at the university’s sports department.
“I suffered medical complications after I was administered steroid injections last year. This year I refused to take the injections and now they have cancelled my admission,” said Bushra Butt.
She said she had complained to the vice chancellor against Sarwar but he had asked her to follow the director’s instructions.
“I was not allowed to appear in the recent mid-term exams. This is injustice that a player who has won many medals for the university is not allowed to continue studies just because she has refused to use steroids,” said Butt, a law student at PU.
Aqsa Nawaz said they could not follow “illegitimate” orders of the PU administration.
“If we are not given justice, we will burn ourselves in front of the press club,” she said.
On July 3, five PU students had written to the chief minister claiming the administration forces them to use steroids to enhance their performance in sports events. The students were Bushra Mahmood, Aqsa Rashid, Aqsa Nawaz, Fauzia Parveen and Zunaira Liaquat.
Shamsa Hashmi and the PU public relations officer (PRO) denied the allegations at a separate press conference at the press club on Monday.
Hashmi said the university would give dope tests to the students to investigate the allegations. The PRO said apparently a lecturer at the PU Law College had persuaded the five students to write to the chief minister. He said the girls had not filed any complaint with the vice chancellor.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2014.
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