HYDERABAD - The female student of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University (SBBU), who charged his teacher and the vice chancellor with sexual harassment, has moved a petition in the Sindh High Court along with his father and brother for protection and justice.

According to the details, the final year student of SBBU’s English Department Farzana Jamali, her father Aijaz Jamali and brother Zohaib Jamali filed the petition through advocate Ali Palh. The petitioners informed the court that Farzana was subjected to sexual harassment by her department’s acting Chairman Aamir Saeed Khattak.

The petitioner claimed that after being harassed by Khattak she approached the SBBU’s Vice Chancellor Arshad Saleem Arain with her complaint. However, she alleged that the VC instead of listening to her complaint harassed her.

The lawyer apprised the court that her client later submitted a complaint to the police authorities and also a held a press conference last month in Benazirabad. He maintained that the police was initially reluctant to register the FIR until the media widely reported the matter and the students in different universities in Sindh began protests.

They said when Aijaz took up the matter with the university he was falsely implicated in an FIR and arrested under charges of assaulting the university’s teacher in the campus.

On September 28, the petitioner Zohaib was injured in a cracker explosion in Benazirabad but the police implicated him in the FIR of planting the explosives.

They claimed that Arain, Khattak and the influential people who were supporting them implicated Aijaz and Zohaib in fake cases to pressure the family to withdraw from the harassment complaint.

Farazana stated that her mid-term exams are approaching but in the prevailing situation she was neither able to concentrate on her studies nor she could go to the varsity.

The petitioners claimed that they were living under threat to their lives and pleaded the court to provide them protection and an environment in which she could continue her studies.

“The issue of sexual harassment in the educational institutions is widespread where the female students are often subjected to the harassment,” the petitioner stated. She underlined that justice in her case would ensure right to education to the female students.

The petitioners cited Article 14 of the Constitution which ensured dignity of men and women as important and which should be protected. They prayed the court to order the concerned authorities to ensure protection of their lives and ensure their safety against the threats.

They also pleaded the court to restrain the police officials from registering false FIRs against her family.

Farzana requested the court to direct the SBBU authorities to take her mid-term exam in a befitting environment preferably at the office of the Deputy Commissioner or some other government office but not in the university.

The SHC while putting respondents on notice for Oct 10 restrained the Benzirabad police from lodging any further FIR against the respondents.