IBA registrar resigns after anti-harassment committee recommends two-week suspension

The registrar of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Dr Mohammad Asad Ilyas, on Monday resigned from his post after an anti-harassment committee of the institute recommended his suspension for two weeks. He, however, will continue his job as a faculty member of the institute.

Jibrail’s case

The registrar’s resignation came in connection with the case of Muhammad Jibrail, a student who was expelled by the IBA in September 2021 but later allowed to continue higher education at the institute.

Read more: IBA reinstates expelled student following decision of disciplinary committee

Jibrail, a student of the BS economics programme, had raised a harassment issue on social media that he claimed to have witnessed. He explained in a long Facebook post that he witnessed in the varsity’s finance department a person yelling at and ridiculing a female employee.

After that post, the institute expelled him for violating discipline. In a statement issued by the IBA, it maintained that its anti-harassment committee was investigating the case as per the institute’s and HEC’s rules. “We do not jump to any conclusions on the basis of hearsay and always follow processes before any decision can be taken,” the statement read.

As the expulsion of Jibrail resulted in hue and cry on social media, the institute reinstated the student in October. In a statement, the IBA said the decision was taken on October 5 after the executive director conducted a hearing of the student's appeal against the disciplinary committee’s decision on September 29 to expel him.

During the hearing, Jibrail reaffirmed his respect for the IBA and the executive director, and his commitment to the institution. Jibrail, however, stated that he had not been given fair opportunity to explain his case before the Registrar Office Leadership Team (ROLT). To this, institute formed a three-member anti-harassment committee comprising Director Corporate Relations and Alumni Affairs Malahat Awan, Management Department Chairperson Dr Muhammad Ayaz and Barrister Altaf Qureshi to investigate the matter.

Committee’s findings

The committee in its findings stated, “It appears from the account given by Jibrail and others that, as soon as Jibrail posted about the harassment incident on social media, ROLT took it automatically as a disciplinary matter, rather than an indication of a harassment incident which needed investigation”.

The report reads: “We feel that the atmosphere was adversarial, where Jibrail was not given a proper chance to share his version of the facts. He was interrupted multiple times, mostly by Dr Asad. He kept insisting that Jibrail must answer in a yes or a no fashion. This seems to have been done to intimidate Jibrail.”

The committee declared that the registrar Dr Asad misused his position in Jibrail’s case, used his influence to engineer on outcome of his liking and his behaviour amounted to harassment. The report also stated that the registrar misguided the executive director and provided a wrong counsel to him on the matter.

The committee recommended that the registrar should apologise in writing to Jibrail or personally apologise to him in the presence of the executive director for the harm and mental trauma caused to him.

The report also recommended that Dr Asad be suspended for two weeks.

Aftermath

On Monday, when the report was discussed in a high-level meeting, Dr Asad in his written statement said: “I understand that there may have been some Lackings but in no way can I be singled out and be blamed unilaterally for everything that went wrong at the IBA. I outrightly reject the report and its outcome. I am resigning as Registrar IBA under protest.”

He added that though he had the right to challenge the report to still hang to the powerful position of the registrar but he did not want to take that route.

“I look forward to continuing making my contribution to the IBA as a faculty member. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience that I may have caused during my time as Registrar,” he stated.