Pakistani university hit by sex scandals

Herald Globe (IANS) Friday 10th February, 2012

A university in the Pakistani capital has been hit by a string of sex scandals, with faculty members accused of preying upon vulnerable women students, a daily reported Friday.

Sources told the Dawn that "seedy affairs had been going on in the holy precincts" of the International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) for quite some time now.

An official said a professor and a librarian recently left the university after they were accused of rape.

"We did not approach the police to investigate the allegations as it would have brought bad name to the university and set parents of the 9,500 girls studying here worrying," the official was quoted as saying.

The sources also said a professor offered women students "good marks" in examinations in return for sex. He would even force himself upon unwilling students with threats of failing them.

The professor's escapades came to an end after the students' union claimed they had evidence.

The university asked the victim to file a formal complaint for initiating action against the accused but her family refused.

The daily said it was the same kind of evidence that had gone viral on the internet and forced the librarian to resign a few months earlier.

However, the father of a victim reported a senior faculty member to the Prime Minister's Secretariat which instructed the Islamabad police to investigate.

When the investigators arrived to probe, university officials reportedly pleaded with them to hush up the matter as a probe would tarnish the image of the institution.