KARACHI: A top business school in Karachi expelled a student for exposing an incident of workplace harassment and helping the female victim in lodging a complaint with the management.
The Institute of Business Administration chucked out Mohammad Gibrail for reporting the incident on social media instead of engaging the “right channels” within the institute, a statement shared on the institute’s Facebook page said, without naming the student.
Disciplinary proceedings against Gibrail began after he posted on Facebook about an incident he observed in the institute’s finance department on August 25, wherein he heard the manager screaming at a female staffer, saying, “Mein tumhein puri raat bitha kar rakhoon gaa (I will make you sit here all night).”
He later refused IBA’s demand to take down the post.
Gibrail said he was so enraged by what he saw that he wanted to report it to the university’s harassment committee but could not do it that day due to some “enrolment and finance issues” he had to sort out.
“As a citizen of this country, this is my duty in letter and spirit to report this crap of society whenever I will observe no matter who the hell he is.”
In its statement, IBA said the student had posted about the incident “without following the standard operating procedures that are expected to be followed at the IBA”, such as filing a complaint at any of the committees or offices.
“Sharing details about an alleged incident without having complete knowledge of the context and background on any public platform is against IBA’s rules and regulations,” it further said.
It added Gibrail had used the details, including a picture, of the employee “even before the victim filed an official complaint which led to endangering the physical and psychological safety of the employee, his coworkers, and the department”.
IBA maintained the student reported to “defame the Institute, its finance department, and the employee, including senior professors on various national forums.”
However, despite his alleged violation of the protocol, the student “was given multiple occasions to reconsider his actions and was counselled numerous times to reassess his actions.”
“Having failed to do that, the Disciplinary Committee has decided to expel the student as the IBA has [a] zero-tolerance policy towards the violation of its rules and regulations.”
The institute further claimed that in the past, issues brought to “any of the platforms have been resolved following the rules and regulations of the competent authorities”.
“The IBA has provided the channels and processes that need to be followed when any matter of concern arises, despite that, if an individual chooses to opt for ways and means that disrupt the ethics, values and standards of the IBA, the administration has zero-tolerance for any such behaviour.”
ACTIVIST SLAMS INSTITUTE
Gibrail’s counsel and activist Jibran Nasir censured the institute for dismissing the student. “It’s not the student who defamed IBA, it is IBA which is defaming rather exposing itself with this step. A student’s career has been ruined for speaking truth,” he tweeted.
Instead of heeding to legitimate demands of students for harassment free campus, student Gibrael who dared to speak out 1st has been reportedly recommended for expulsion by IBA Disciplinary Committee. But it’s always nice to read articles abt progressive politics by @EDIBAKarachi https://t.co/GDcJ18oRog
— M. Jibran Nasir 🇵🇸 (@MJibranNasir) September 29, 2021
