Daily Times

Police on Friday arrested and registered a case against a government school teacher for harassing a nine-year-old female student.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered at Waris Khan Police Station, Rehamdad Khan, a resident of Qasimabad, claimed, “My nine-year-old daughter was avoiding going to school. When I asked her the reason she said that her teacher Zubair Ahmed sexually harassed her during break time and threatened of killing her if she told anyone.”

When the locals came to know about the incident, a large number of people reached the Government Primary School for Girls at Qasimabad to beat the teacher up.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) former general secretary Zaheer Ahmed Awan and Member of Provincial Assembly Seemabia Tahir also reached the school.

The police arrested the accused from the school’s premises and registered an FIR under section 376, 511 and 506 of the Pakistan Penal Court.

Two more students came forward leveling the same accusation against the teacher.

PTI’s Zaheer Ahmed Awan later said that the people who had surrounded the school’s building looked so angry that he feared they would take law in their own hands and kill the teacher.

Later, Provincial Minister Raja Rashid Hafeez also reached the police station to inquire into the matter. He ordered the District Education Authority’s chief executive officer to also hold a department inquiry against the head master of the school.

“The police should investigate the matter on merit and should not take any kind of pressure. Such kind of black sheep in the government department will not be tolerated,” the provincial minister added.

MPA Seemabia Tahir while talking to media said, “The police should also investigate the other staff members of the school. They were also pressuring the students to keep silent. Young male teachers should not be deputed in a girls’ school. I will take up the issue with higher authorities to revisit deputation of the male teacher,” she maintained.

Published in Daily Times, September 15^th 2018.