Daily Times

RAWALPINDI: An inquiry report has found Prof Sadat Bashir, a teacher, guilty of harassing female students at an Islamabad college.

Bashir, a teacher at Islamabad Model College for Boys in Sector H9 of Islamabad, was accused of groping over 80 girls and threatening to deduct their marks during biology practical.

An inquiry report submitted by the Federal Directorate of Colleges to the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) found Bashir guilty of harassing students.

A chargesheet will be submitted in a week.

The two-member committee found in its report that the accusations against the professor were true and stated that the students had provided evidence of harassment.

According to the report, Bashir used to ask students for their phone numbers to establish ‘friendship’ with them. It also stated that he used to barter higher grades in exams for phone numbers.

Apart from the criminal proceedings against him, Bashir stands to lose his job and all the benefits granted to him as a professor.

Saba Ali, one of the victims, was the first girl who took to the social media to share her ordeal in May this year.

The student of HSC Part 2, who had gone to Bahria College for her biology practical, wrote on Facebook: “I am still completely shook that we had to go through this. Approximately 80 girls were sexually harassed that day and our teacher told us to keep quite because she didn’t want us to lose marks!

Sadat Bashir scared us for life and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Following her suit, nearly two dozen survivors and girl rights activists launched a massive campaign, #PunishSadatBashir, on social media.

A shocking number of 3,445 children were sexually abused in Pakistan in 2017, according to NGO Sahil’s annual report. The report says 2,077 girls and 1,368 boys have been survivors of sexual exploitation.

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.