September 29th, 2021
By Ahmed Saeed
LAHORE
The Institute of Business administration (IBA) Karachi has expelled a final year student for whistleblowing an incident of alleged workplace harassment. The decision came after days of protest by students of the university for initiating disciplinary action against the whistleblower, Mohammad Gibrail.
The expulsion notice, a copy of which is available with Voicepk.net, stated that Gibrail had been charged with various violations of the institution’s policy, including defaming and maligning the university, inciting the masses to protest, attempting to influence the decisions of relevant committees, and non-compliance with institutional procedures.
The notice read that:
“Investigation report was presented and discussed. Disciplinary committee found you guilty of the charges and decided to take following actions
a) Expulsion from the institute and the hostel with immediate effect
b) The IBA will not award or endorse any credit of your academic tenure with the institute.”
Gibaril expressed his disappointment with the decision and said that he was not given a fair chance during the disciplinary committee hearing. He said he will file a review to IBA’s registrar.
Rights activist and lawyer Jibran Nasir strongly condemned IBA’s decision to ruin the student’s career for doing the right thing. He said the decision can be challenged in the high court as it has many legal defects.
Gibrail, a BS Economics student, shared his eyewitness account of a finance department officer, Tanveer Ahmed, yelling at a female employee on August 25 on his Facebook profile. According to the post, Ahmed threatened the female employee that he would force her to do overtime late into the night.
“This was actually the incident of a workplace harassment that took place in front of my eyes in IBA’s Finance Department where [I] saw a person whom, I inquired his identity late, named Tanveer, yelled at a female [employee] of IBA in that Finance Department and bursted on her, ” Mein Raat tak tumhe bithaonga”,” Gibrail’s post read.
When the post went viral, the IBA admin, instead of launching an investigation into the incident and taking action against the alleged harasser, ordered Gibrail to delete the post. He was also told to issue a public apology and was threatened with expulsion in the case of non-compliance.
Meanwhile, the female employee also filed a harassment application on September 7, but nothing substantial has come of it as of yet.
According to well-placed sources, she has been transferred to another department while the accused is still holding his position. Ahmed oversees financial aid cases of needy students – some former students have also come forward with his inappropriate attitude with them.
