Lahore High Court (LHC) announced in a recent hearing that college authorities should prohibit the presence of men wherever there are female students. The remarks came with regard to an alleged case of sexual harassment in LCWU.
A full court bench heard the case.
On Friday, Chief Justice Aalia Neelum ordered the authorities to note down the statement of the alleged victim linked to the claims of rape in Punjab College.
The High Court took up the matter of three separate incidents, including the protests against alleged rape in Punjab College Campus 10 and a case of harassment in Lahore College of Women University (LCWU).
Punjab College case
Punjab Inspector General Usman Anwer and officials from the colleges appeared before the court with a complete report.
Justice Neelum expressed displeasure with the police chief. She asked him the reason for the delay. She also remarked that removing the video from social media would have only taken half an hour. The IG replied that they had reached out to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, but it wasn’t within the police domain to delete a video to prevent it from going viral.
Advocate General Punjab told the court that the relevant assistant superintendent of police met family of the concerned student linked to alleged rape and checked CCTV footage.
“Every child protesting was claiming that rape had been committed but no one has the evidence,” he stated in the court.
He, however, admitted that there were some failures on the authorities’ part.
“It is quite unfortunate if all this happened due to fake news,” the CJ remarked during the hearing.
LCWU case
Moreover, she inquired about the number of complaints regarding harassment case in the LCWU.
The public prosecutor and college registrar told the court that there was only one such complaint and the person facing the allegations has been suspended from his post.
CJ Neelum asked the authorities if the students were in such a “state of mind” that they can join their colleges again and she said for this the college administration should regain the trust of parents.
The court ordered the authorities to take the statement from the girl who is being named in the claims pertaining to alleged rapein LCWU. It also warned the college authorities against pressurising the student.
The court also ordered a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) committee to investigate all three cases.
Read More: Committee formed to investigate Punjab College case declares alleged rape as fake
