Imran Khan’s nephew complains of victimisation

LONDON: Pakistan Tehrike Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan’s student activist nephew Hassan Niazi has alleged that the City University London had been involved in a plot to ensure that he is not elected to the post of the union president.
Hassan Niazi, the 25-year-old student of master’s degree in international human rights, lost the election to the post of president by only 2 votes. His opponent current elected Vice President got 1005 votes.
Just before the polling Hassan Niazi was involved in a national controversy when it was reported that he had used the “faggot” to attack a prominent Pakistani politician but Hassan Niazi straightaway apologised for using the word and stressed that he had used the word only as a joke and that the use of such terminology was not deemed offensive in Pakistani culture.
However he says he still apologises if any person was hurt by that tweet and said he believed in equal rights for all people not on the basis of faith gender, colour or sex.Hassan Niazi, who surprised everyone in the City University by gaining 1003 votes, believes that he was denied the post through “unfair elections” as he was “subjected to victimisation and unfair treatment while the university knowingly failed to act and protect” his rights. When Niazi questioned why the elections were taking place one month before the standard time, he was told that attendance is at its maximum during this time but it turned out that during the polling week, the Law school and two other schools were having reading week and thus leading to lowest turnout.
When voting started, Niazi’s picture was not on the ballot paper at the polling booth or the online ballot paper, putting him to disadvantage. Many of Niazi’s supporters voted for his opponents thinking he was not contesting or had withdrawn but when he protested his picture was added in an online link after he made official complaint to National Union of Students (NUS) but not in the paper ballot. Niazi says the picture was not there for two days and after the official complaint by him it was put online in 15 minutes.
When it came to the presidential debate it was postponed to keep the process free and fair. “The shocking thing was the same rule seems not to be considered when it came to printing ballot without my picture.”
He told The News in an interview: “The school of Bar and the Cass business school were kept in complete isolation during this election. No effort was made to keep them part of the process. This made the process weak and less free and fair.”
Niazi alleges that during the election campaign, he was victimised with a smear campaign. “I was initially portrayed as anti- Semitic, later as homophobe and then a racist and an extremist. I tried my best to not let this come in between the result of the elections and my campaign but after the reaction from the students I felt threatened, got scared, and lodged an urgent complaint to the University and the Union at approximately 3pm on 26th February which was the last day of voting. I boycotted the election campaign and asked for the immediate suspension of polling till action was taken against the people who were part of this campaign. I waited all evening and night for a response but nothing happened. That same evening I met with Craig (DRO) and Alan Macdonald (Union staff officer) and they officially cleared me from these allegations,” he says, adding: “They never even gave any clarification or official statement on my behalf although they made repeated promises. Instead my official stance was also blocked from being published by the Union media.”
Niazi says when the British media went after him, the “Union and the University seemed to have completely disowned me as if I was not part of city and I had to tackle it all on my own”.“I feel discriminated and victimised. Being a Pakistani passport holder does not mean I am not as much part of university as my opponent. If I am a Muslim, it does not mean I am a homophobe. If I come from Pakistan, it does not mean that I am racist. I want an apology for the smear campaign in which I was solely victimised. They took away my dream to become Union President of University from where Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah studied. I will struggle till I get justice.”The News asked the City University several questions about Niazi’s allegations but no answer was received in three days.