Girl accuses ICU acting VC of sexual harassment

PESHAWAR: A graduate of the Islamia College University has accused the acting vice-chancellor Dr Naushad Khan of sexual harassment and posted her complaint at the Prime Minister’s Citizen Portal.

Dr Naushad Khan vehemently rejected the allegation as baseless and pledged to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) with the police against the student, Haseena Jahangir. This is not the first time that the historic Islamia College University has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Haseena Jahangir has submitted her complaint with the anti-corruption department. She also posted complaint of sexual harassment at the Prime Minister’s Citizen Portal.

In her letter to chief minister’s special assistant for anti-corruption, the girl claimed that she was deprived by the acting vice-chancellor of gold medal for not meeting his unjust demands. She said that she was a regular student of the Pakistan Studies Department of the university in the session 2014-16 and secured 3.84 CGPA out of 4.

“But when I was submitting thesis at the office of Dr Naushad Khan, the then chairman of the department, he demanded Rs100,000 from her for giving her the first position. He also asked me to go for dinner with him to some hotel,” she alleged.

She alleged that on her refusal to meet the unjust and illicit demand of DrNaushad Khan, a professor from Islamiyat Department of the University of Peshawar was named her external examiner even though he had nothing to do with her subject. “The examiner Dr Abdullah awarded her less marks to affect her top position,” she maintained.

She said that she submitted an application with the then vice-chancellor of the university seeking justice. “The application was referred to the appellate committee, which in its meeting decided the matter in my favour and asked the controller examination to award me gold medal and merit certificate,” she recalled.

She said that she was awarded gold medal at the convocation of the university on December 12, 2017 by the then chancellor in the presence of Dr Naushad Khan. “But to my astonishment when I applied for merit certificate in May 2018, Dr Naushad Khan removed the words ‘first position’ and overwrote it with second position in his own handwriting,” she alleged.

She demanded issuance of merit certificate to her and action against Dr Naushad Khan, who is currently holding the office of the vice-chancellor on acting basis.

When contacted, Dr Naushad Khan rejected the allegations as baseless. He said that the issue was not a new one. “Everything is part of record. I was no one to name anyone as external examiner. It was the job of the controller examination,” he argued.

He said that some corrupt elements in the university were trying to malign him through mean tactics. The girl too was doing this at the behest of those corrupt elements, he maintained, while referring to some senior faculty members of the university.

He said that he would soon lodge an FIR against the girl and deal the matter legally. “I would also serve a legal notice of Rs200 million on these corrupt elements,” he declared.