Tag: expel

  • IBA reinstates expelled student who spoke out against alleged harassment on campus

    IBA reinstates expelled student who spoke out against alleged harassment on campus

    The Insitute of Business Administration (IBA) reinstated Mohammad Gibrail, a student who was expelled by the university administration a week ago for speaking out against the alleged harassment incident on social media.

    The decision was taken by IBA’s Executive Director (ED) of the institution S Akbar Zaidi after hearing the appeal against the Disciplinary Committee’s decision, which took place on September 29. Zaidi reinstated Gibrail as a student with immediate effect, as per Geo News.

    Jibran Nasir, the lawyer for Gibrail, confirmed that the student had been reinstated. He tweeted, “Congratulations to all students! Gibrail’s admission on appeal to [IBA, ED] has been restored unconditionally,” adding that the ED had also “committed reforms to make IBA safer, give students representation in admin affairs and expeditious and transparent inquiry into the harassment case”.

    During the hearing, Gibrail reaffirmed his respect for the IBA and the Executive Director and reportedly withdrew those parts of his appeal which were unrelated to his expulsion.

    On August 25, Gibrail had reported the alleged sexual harassment incident on a public Facebook post. He stated, “This was actually the incident of workplace harassment that took place in front of my eyes in IBA’s Finance Department where I saw a person whom, I inquired his identity late, named Tanveer yelled at a female employee of IBA in that Finance Department and burst on her.”

    After this, students of IBA started protesting against the administration to take notice of this issue. Despite looking into the matter, IBA’s Disciplinary Committee expelled Gibrail a few days after the incident.

  • HR ministry directs Lahore university to re-admit expelled students

    The Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) has directed the University of Lahore to re-admit the expelled students, saying that the university “overreacted” on the matter.

    According to a report in Dawn, MoHR Parliamentary Secretary Lal Chand Malhi wrote a letter to the University of Lahore’s vice-chancellor, requesting him to re-admit the expelled students. The letter was reportedly written on March 16.

    The letter said that the university administration expelled the students without giving them the chance to explain themselves and that the university “overreacted” on the matter.

    Terming the university’s action as “moral policing,” the ministry said: “Both the girl and the boy did not commit such a heinous crime for which they were punished “severely and expelled from the university. This would destroy their career and future education opportunities.”

    “This kind of freedom[proposing] is outlined in Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Pakistan is party and also under the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” read the letter further.

    Background

    The University of Lahore expelled two students for publicly expressing their love and proposing on university grounds. In a video that went viral on social media, a girl could be seen getting down on one knee and asking her partner to marry him with a bouquet of roses. The proposal ended with the two hugging each other.

    According to a notification, dated March 12, the two students were expelled for “[being] involved in gross misconduct and violation of university rules and were called to appear before the special disciplinary committee [but] failed to appear.”

    Public Reaction

    The expulsion of the students in Lahore over a public proposal has created an uproar on social media with users criticising the university administration for the shallow-minded approach. Prominent personalities who criticised the university for its decision included Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry, PPP’s Sharmila Faruqi, Shehzad Roy, Yasir Hussain and Shaniera Akram.