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Thursday March 28, 2024

IBA expels student for ‘defaming institute, trying to influence inquiry body in harassment case’

By Arshad Yousafzai
September 30, 2021

As a result of disciplinary action, the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) has expelled a student from the institute after he highlighted an alleged case of harassment on his social media account.

On August 5, the student, Muhammad Gibrail, wrote on his Facebook account: “Some days before, I visited IBA’s Finance Department and observed a very gross and crappy incident in front of my eyes and it was an eye-opening ominous incident that actually told and reflected a lot of scum that our society contains.”

He explained that the incident was about a workplace harassment that he witnessed in the varsity’s finance department where a person yelled at and ridiculed a female employee of the institute. He added that he was so enraged by what he saw that he wanted to report it to the varsity’s harassment committee but could not do it that day due to some enrolment and finance issues he had to sort out.

Gibrail wrote: “As a citizen of this country, this is my duty in letter and spirit to report this crap of society whenever I will observe no matter who the hell he is.” For his alleged repeated besmirching of the institute, the student had to subsequently face disciplinary action. The disciplinary committee in its decision taken on September 29 wrote: “[The] disciplinary committee found you [Gibrail] guilty of the charges and decided to take the actions: expulsion from the institute and the hostel with immediate effect and the IBA will not award or endorse any credit of your academic tenure with the institute.”

After this decision, some social media activists took the matter to Twitter and decried the expulsion of Gibrail. Lawyer and social media activist Muhammad Jibran Nasir tweeted: “By expelling Gibrail, the IBA has sent a message to all female staff and students that they should never rely on any eyewitness if they face harassment as anyone who speaks up like Gibrail will be expelled. The institute also sent a message to students to keep their heads down when they see injustice.”

Later he wrote: “Today Gibrail was literally thrown out by the IBA and not even allowed to collect possessions from the hostel. Gibrail belongs to Lakki Marwat, he scored 90 plus in matric and Intermediate, got admission in IBA on scholarship, became TA & sacrificed everything two months before graduation for truth.”

In response to such criticism on social media, a spokesperson for the IBA, Ayesha Javed, said the institute had already posted on its Facebook page that “the recent decisions and actions [were] taken by the Disciplinary Committee of the IBA to ensure that students are safe, and their concerns are heard and addressed in a timely manner. The IBA is an Institute that is known for its disciplinary rules, policies and the IBA Code of Conduct, which applies to all members of the faculty, staff and students.”

It was said that the IBA had provided several platforms to the students where concerns could be brought up, including the Grievance Committee, Anti-Harassment Committee, Disciplinary Committee, Office of the Registrar and the Executive Director’s Office.

The institute clarified that a thorough inquiry was carried out into the alleged misconduct of Gibrail, after which the disciplinary committee decided to expel the student from the BS economics programme.

According to the IBA, the student shared details about the incident on social media without first following the standard operating procedures that were expected to be followed at the IBA such as filing a complaint at any of the offices concerned. It was said that sharing details about an alleged incident without having complete knowledge of the context on any public platform was against the rules and regulations of the institute.

The student also shared details of the alleged harasser’s Facebook profile and his picture even before the victim had filed an official complaint, which led to endangering the physical and psychological safety of the employee, his coworkers and the department.

“He [Gibrail] defamed the Institute, its Finance Department, and employees, including senior professors, on various national forums, inciting students to protest and leading demonstrations against the Institute and pitting the students and the IBA administration against one another which could have jeopardised the security of the protesters and the administration personnel,” the spokesperson said.

The student was accused of endangering the physical and psychological safety of other students, employees, and faculty members with such protests. The disciplinary committee found that he attempted to influence decisions of the relevant committees, which were completely independent and neutral, to achieve desired outcomes through dissemination of the incident and chain of events on mediums of communications outside the IBA, and spreading misinformation and twisting facts.

The IBA also claimed that the student was told on multiple occasions to reconsider his actions and was counselled numerous times but as he failed to correct his behaviour, the disciplinary committee decided to expel him as the institute had zero tolerance for violation of its rules and regulations.

It is important to note that his highlighting of the incident of alleged harassment within the IBA was appreciated by the IBA administration. The institute said it welcomed its students pointing out issues of concern to them. “We need to emphasise that the act of the student of whistleblowing of alleged harassment has nothing to with the disciplinary matter.”

The IBA said its anti-harassment committee was investigating the case as per the IBA and Higher Education Commission’s rules. “We do not jump to any conclusions on the basis of hearsay and always follow processes before any decision can be taken.”