Stopping of MPhil results : BZU students file complaint with Punjab Ombudsperson

MULTAN: Students from the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) have filed a complaint with the Ombudsperson of Punjab against an instructor on the charges of harassment, discrimination and stopping their results.

The students, who had done MPhil in International Relations, alleged that BZU IR Department instructor and ex-chairman Prof Dr Tahir Ashraf was deliberately creating hurdles and even stopped their MPhil results. They said that they had passed the MPhil two years ago, but the instructor had allegedly stopped their results for the only reason of choosing other faculty members as their research supervisors in MPhil instead of him.

BZU MPhil IR students Syed Ghulam Murtaza and Aizad Raza Tirmizi lodged their complaints with the Punjab Ombudsman, stating that they had got admission to MPhil IR session 2023/2025, which completed in February 2025, but the instructor allegedly delayed their viva for more than six months despite the submission of their thesis before the deadline. The BZU conducted their viva on July 24, 2025. The BZU controller examinations had stopped their result without any justification.

Another complainant student Samuel John Howell told The News that the instructor allegedly wrote a letter to the BZU controller examinations to stop their results. The MPhil IR students said that they were unable to apply for new jobs in the absence of their MPhil degrees. In an application to the Punjab Ombudsman, two female students Nimra Mughal and Sana Taj of session 2023/2025 accused the instructor of harassing them and stopping their results because they chose their research supervisors from other faculty, which hurt his ego.

When contacted, the BZU Registrar Office said there was no room for intimidation and harassment against male and female students. BZU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zubair Iqbal had taken punitive action and removed instructor Prof Dr Tahir Ashraf from the post of chairman of IR Department through BZU Registrar Office notification vide No Acad-8/IR/25/1866, the officials said. The News has obtained a copy of notification, which says that the vice chancellor had received a series of complaints of gross misconduct, misuse of authority in administrative and academic matters combined with complaints of harassment against Associate Prof Dr Tahir Ashraf. The interim report of the BZU Harassment Inquiry committee after thoroughly considering the complaints of harassment against Associate Prof Dr Tahir Ashraf disallowed him to discharge his function as the BZU Department of IR chairman. The officials said that further proceedings against the instructor were under way. This scribe made many attempts to talk to Associate Prof Dr Tahir Ashraf, but he did not respond. A questionnaire was sent to him via text message as he said, but he did not respond.