Punjab’s state counsel told the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday that students claiming that a college student in Lahore was raped “had no evidence” for the alleged incident.
Last week, reports related to the alleged rape of a private college student went viral on social media, prompting the police to arrest a security guard at the college who was allegedly involved in the incident.
Enraged by the alleged incident, students mobilised on social media and staged protests outside different colleges in Lahore over the past few days, resulting in at least 28 being injured on Monday.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has declared that the alleged rape was “fabricated news”, blaming the PTI for spreading the “fake reports” on social media. Punjab Group of Colleges (PGC) group Director Agha Tahir and other office-holders have termed the incident “baseless”.
Faced with the double challenge of a possible agitation by the PTI and students’ protest today, the Punjab government has banned all public gatherings for two days as Section 144 has been imposed across the province.
All public and private educational institutions across Punjab will also remain closed today.
LHC Chief Justice Aalia Neelum resumed hearing a petition filed earlier this week against the alleged harassment of female students in Punjab’s educational institutions.
Upon being summoned by the LHC, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IG) Dr Usman Anwar and Advocate General of Punjab Khalid Ishaq appeared before the court today.
“Every student is saying that the assault took place but no one had any evidence,” Ishaq told the court.
During the hearing, Justice Neelum censured the Punjab IG for not being able to stop videos about the claims from spreading, saying that it was his “failure” that students had taken to the streets.
The LHC chief justice then decided that the matter of harassment of students and a separate ongoing case of Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari’s fake videos be clubbed together and heard by a full bench on October 22.
The hearing comes a day after police made more than 380 arrests as student protests against the alleged incident spread to Rawalpindi.
Separately, the Cyber Crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) carried out province-wide raids yesterday for the arrest of some senior journalists, lawyers, and TikTokers, arresting three of them for allegedly spreading false information on social media regarding the incident.
The case was registered in light of an inquiry conducted by the cyber crime wing of the FIA (Lahore) on the complaint of Punjab College for Women (Gulberg) Principal Sadia Yousuf.
The hearing
At the outset of the hearing, Justice Neelum asked IG Anwar, “Why were the videos not prevented from spreading [on social media]? Did you approach any authority to stop the videos [from being spread]?”
The Punjab police chief replied he had approached the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The chief justice then noted that the videos went viral on October 13 and 14, remarking: “You wake up when the fire has been set alight, when everything has been burned.”
“Did you contact the relevant authorities very late?” she asked, to which the Punjab IG replied that more than 700 accounts were involved in sharing the videos. He stressed that the police “only have one agency to oversee cybercrime”.
“IG sahib, this is your failure that you let the children take to the streets,” Justice Neelum observed.
At one point during the hearing, the Punjab advocate general said the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) of the area had met the principal of the alleged college and checked the CCTV footage.
“Every student is saying that the assault took place but no one had any evidence,” Ishaq told the court. He added that students from other campuses also reached the college and “everything happened in an organised manner”.
The lawyer recalled that CM Maryam had formed a special committee to probe the matter after the protesters turned to “vandalism”.
“No rape victim came forward till Monday,” Ishaq said adding that there were “rumours that the alleged rape took place on October 9 or 10”.
The advocate general stated that a girl received treatment at the Lahore General Hospital on October 2, and then went to a private hospital on October 4. The girl, he added, remained admitted in the hospital’s intensive care unit for five days.
“Since the girl was not coming to the college, someone claimed that they have found the rape victim. On only the basis that she was not coming to college, she was linked with the rumour.”
“I can arrange your meeting with this girl if you say so,” Ishaq offered.
The advocate general then informed the court that a “man who calls himself a lawyer made a video referring to these girls”. The man was then acquitted from a case by a magistrate, he said.
Ishaq continued, “There is a new practice of acquittal from cases; whoever we arrest becomes a hero the next day.
“We may not be able to determine what is going to happen on Sunday,” he further said. The advocate general asserted: “We are not saying that it happened systematically, but opportunists took advantage of it when it did happen.”
The chief justice then decided that the current petition and Bokhari’s case regarding her fake videos be clubbed together and heard by a full bench.
“A full bench will hear these cases on Tuesday (October 22),” Justice Neelum said.
She also issued directives to the FIA director general to probe the recent incidents and summoned him in person on the next hearing.
Subsequently, the hearing was adjourned till October 22.
More to follow
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