Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University VC, lecturer booked for sexually harassing student

NAWABSHAH - Police registered a first information report (FIR) against vice chancellor and a lecturer of the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (SBBU), Nawabshah for allegedly sexually harassing a final-year student.

The victim named Farzana Jamali lodged on Tuesday an FIR against the officials under Sections 506 and 509(i) and (ii) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

She claimed in the FIR that the lecturer and VC harassed her sexually to the level that she was about to commit suicide due to mental pressure. Jamil added that her father when approached the VC to take action against the lecturer, he told him to send her daughter to her office alone. The VC also also pressed the father to go for a compromise with the accused, she said.

After the victim’s father failed to fulfill the VC’s terms, he filed a petition with a local court. The victim said her father was also implicated in a fake case and sent behind the bars, the girl added.

The police registered the case against the varsity official days after the victim shared the ordeal with media on Sunday.

However, the accused lecturer denied the allegations as false, saying he had chided the final-year student for not attending the classes regularly which might have offended her. He also claimed that the father of the girl along with some armed men also thrashed him badly on Farzana Jamil’s complaint.

On the other hand, the court has summoned SHO of the Taluka police station on September 6 following the petition filed by Jamil.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah also set up an inquiry committee headed by former Sindh University vice chancellor Prof Qadeer Rajput.