Harassment probe bodies to be formed in all medical colleges

LAHORE : A meeting of the Vice-Chancellors' Committee constituted by Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar to formulate an effective strategy to prevent incidents of harassment in public places and workplaces was held on Wednesday at University of Health Sciences (UHS).

Chairing the meeting, UHS Vice-Chancellor Prof Javed Akram said internal inquiry committees would be formed in all medical and dental colleges to investigate the incidents of harassment. He said that most of the incidents of harassment went unreported. He suggested that a study should be done to have evidence-based data on incidents of harassment.

Motivational speaker Qasim Ali Shah said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority should pay attention to the menace of obscenity. "The whole society has been hijacked by the mobile phones", he lamented and added that laws and systems in the countries with the lowest number of harassment incidents should be studied.

Religious scholar Maulana Muhammad Yousaf said that worship prevents from evil deeds. He added that punishment for misreporting in such cases is commanded in the Holy Quran.

University of Home Economics Professor Kanwal Amin said that the media should show responsibility in reporting such incidents. She added that there was a harassment policy of the Higher Education Commission for universities which was very comprehensive.

University of Education VC Prof Talat Naseer Pasha said 80 percent cases of harassment turned out to be fake. Rawalpindi Women University VC Prof Anila Kamal said the incidents of harassment had always been there; it was only now that people had started talking about it. She said the character building of the youths would make difference.

Advocate Noshab A Khan said that the Supreme Court had recently declared the existing law on harassment as cosmetic and inadequate. The existing law needs to be amended especially with regards to the definition of harassment.

The meeting was also attended by Government College Women's University Sialkot VC Prof Rukhsana Kausar, University of South Asia VC Mian Imran Masood, Punjab Tianjin University VC Dr Abdul Sattar Shakir, SSP Operations Lahore Ismail Kharak, social worker Maliha Hussain, Prof Sidrah Saleem, Dr Sara Ghafoor and Dr Allah Rakha.

job portal: Punjab University on Wednesday launched an employment portal in order to provide employment opportunities to the PU students and the best human resource to the industry. In this regard, an agreement was signed with rozee.pk at PU Vice-Chancellor's office in which PU VC Prof Niaz Ahmad, Registrar Dr Muhammad Khalid Khan, Director Regional Integration Centre PU Dr Fozia Hadi Ali, Country Head Shahbaz Khan, Director Training Tehmina and deans of various faculties participated.

Addressing the ceremony, PU VC Prof Niaz Ahmad said that the administration had focused on producing high standard graduates by imparting quality education and promotion of research culture.

He said that through the establishment of the employment portal, PU students would be able to know about job opportunities in the relevant field. He said that the university was strengthening industry-academia linkages and making efforts to resolve socio-economic issues being faced by the country.