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.
