AKU Expels
Students After Accusations of Covering Up Murder on Campus
By
M A Siddiqui and Shaheen Sehbai
KARACHI/WASHINGTON,
May 7: The prestigious Establishment of Paris-based Prince Aga
Khan in Pakistan, already under fire from the religious right
for suggesting Education Reforms in Pakistan, has landed itself
into a messier situation involving murder of a student and widespread
drug abuse in its well known Aga Khan University in Karachi.
A
doctors group in Washington DC last week charged at a news conference
that Aga Khan University (AKU) was trying to obstruct the course
of justice and cover up the murder in September 2004 of a third
year student.
The
crying mother of the 22-year old victim told the South Asia
Tribune from Multan powerful Army officers were trying to
influence the investigation as one of the suspects in the murder
was son of an Army Colonel who lectured at the Army Medical College
in Rawalpindi.
AKU Executives vehemently deny that the University was in any
way trying to influence the murder investigation or trying to
protect the accused.
“This
matter has been receiving appropriate and serious attention from
Aga Khan University. Let me confirm that everyone at the University
has taken the death of Assad Aftab and the evidence of substance
abuse by some students on campus with the utmost seriousness.
May I also assure you that every assistance that was requested
by all relevant authorities was provided by our University as
and when it was required,” AKU President Shamsh Kassim-Lakha
(Top, Left) told the South Asia Tribune in an E-Mailed
response to the Editor.
In
March 2002, General Pervez Musharraf appointed him as Chairman
of the Steering Committee on Higher Education with the status
of Minister of State to oversee reforms in Pakistan’s higher
education. His Commission also included representatives from other
elitist universities in Pakistan, including the Lahore University
of Management Sciences (LUMS), Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of
Technology (GIKI), and the Institute of Business Administration
(IBA). The government later adopted the Commission reforms which
prompted a storm of protest from the religious parties blaming
the Government to have handed over the education system to Aga
Khan.
As
the Aga Khan and his huge Establishment in Pakistan is grappling
with the increasing political criticism over the Education Reforms
issue, the murder case and the drug abuse charges against the
AKU could not have come at a worse time as this fatality turns
out to be the third student death in AKU, the two earlier ones
in early 1990s, recorded as suicides.
Investigations
by the South Asia Tribune suggested a serious administrative
breakdown in AKU on this explosive issue but neither Mr Lakha
nor other top Aga Khan Executives could possibly be blamed or
may even be in the knowledge of what some AKU Faculty members
and mid-level Administrators were doing to keep the murder blowing
up into their faces.
Assad
Aftab, a 3rd year student of AKU, was found dead in the Hostel
room of another student Zeeshan, son of an Army Colonel, on Sept
16, 2004 in mysterious conditions. When the body was found, family
members said the AKU emergency doctors proclaimed it as a “suicide”
by “overdose of drugs” and wanted the family to take
it away and bury it, without involving the police. When the family
refused, police was called and an autopsy was done the same night
at the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center (JPMC). Click
for Copy of Autopsy Report
The
autopsy report was not immediately available to the family so
they were confused but it clearly showed the cause of death as
“Asphyxia due to suffocation” and “overdose
of Benzodiazepine”. The report also noted that there were
“groove type” marks over both wrists as if the hands
had been tied before death.
A case was registered. Assad Aftab,
said to be a very bright student who had just passed an examination
with distinction, was a Squash player and had no history of drugs.
He was seen one night before with Zeeshan and two other students,
Kashif and Qazi Assad. All three were suspected and were interrogated
but were not nominated in the initial FIR as AKU doctors were
insisting that the case was of a drug over doze and possibly suicide.
When
the autopsy report was made available to the family a few weeks
later, deceased Assad Aftab’s father filed a petition to
nominate the three other students. They had already secured pre-arrest
bails fearing they may be indicted. Click
to see his application
But
then a series of bizarre incidents took place. The mobile phone
of the deceased was missing since the night of the murder and
was recovered from someone who had purchased it for Rs 8,000 from
one of the three accused students. Mohammed Shariq, the Police
officer investigating the case, was caught red-handed with Rs
one million in cash. This amount, according to local news reports,
was sent by father of Zeeshan, the Army Colonel, to bribe the
police. Another amount of Rs 700,000 was also involved. But this
attempt failed and the Police IO was replaced by a new team. Click
to see News Clipping
Then
the AKU, on its own without having been asked by the Police or
the Court, sent samples of the deceased to a London laboratory
for examination and interestingly these samples found that opiates
were also part of blood. The family of the deceased disputed this
but family of one of the accused insisted that a Sindh Government
Medical Board be formed to examine the conduct of the various
parties and the samples.
The
Medical Board was formed and came out with its report that the
samples be sent to another Laboratory in London as the autopsy
report by the Sindh Chemical Examiner and the AKU Report were
conflicting. The Board also noted that AKU had not fulfilled its
legal formalities. Click to See
Board Report
All these procedures dragged on
until end of April when a group of doctors in Washington took
up the case as both the parents of the deceased student Assad
are themselves medical doctors who were worried that the influential
AKU was acting as a party and trying to save the Colonel’s
son and others while their own young boy had been killed.
“AKU
has been behaving childishly and not as a prestigious institution,”
Dr Khalid Abdullah, Convener of the group, Justice for All, told
a news conference in Washington. Expressing concern over the delay
and efforts to hush up the case, Dr. Khalid demanded sincere efforts
to trace out the killers of Assad and urged all concerned to see
that justice is not obstructed, fair play is meted out and those
involved are punished.
When
South Asia Tribune called AKU and wanted to get some
explanation regarding these accusations, Dr Arif Ali Zaidi came
on line and said he was authorized to speak on behalf of AKU and
state its position on record.
He first denied that AKU was interfering
with the process and said full cooperation was being provided
to the investigating authorities. But when specific questions
were asked, Dr Zaidi was speechless and confirmed doubts that
there may be a section of the AKU staff trying to hide facts from
the higher ups and the media.
Dr Zaidi was asked what action
had the AKU taken against the three accused students, whether
the student who sold the mobile of the deceased had been disciplined,
why did AKU send samples to London on its own without any court
or police order, why was it taking so long for any action against
drug abuse in the campus as already three deaths had taken place.
To none of these questions he
could come up with any concrete explanation. In fact he was so
confused he even forgot that he was speaking on record and when
at the end of the 35-minute conversation he was told his interview
was on record, he started protesting.
The
South Asia Tribune then approached the Aga Khan headquarter
in Paris and the organization President, Mr Shamsh Lakha in Pakistan.
The response was instant and effective. At first it was decided
that a 2 or 3 member team of AKU be immediately dispatched to
Washington to meet the Press and explain the position.
But then the idea was dropped
because, according to one official, “we were told that Police
had presented the challan in the Sessions Court and if we commented
on it, it may be contempt of court.”
Within three days at least 10
AKU students have now been expelled or disciplinary action against
them was taken, indirectly confirming that the AKU was having
a very serious drug problem at its campus and had now under pressure
taken quick action.
“I
can also confirm that letters containing the University’s
disciplinary decisions have been issued against the students who
had committed offences under the Student Code of Conduct. Penalties
that have been imposed include expulsion from the University,”
Mr Lakha said in his letter to the South Asia Tribune.
Click for Full Text of the Letter
Other officials said those expelled
included the three students who were charged by Karachi police
for the murder of their colleague, including the son of the Rawalpindi
Colonel.
This quick in-house action apart,
many serious questions still remain unanswered, including a very
damaging noting by a Medical Board set up by the Sindh Government,
which stated that the AKU had not completed the legal formalities
completely. What was AKU’s interest in proactively taking
actions which could influence the murder case, one way or the
other?
Likewise
the Associate Dean of AKU for Student Affairs, Dr Arif Ali Zaidi,
who was accused by the family of partisan behavior and who failed
to answer many pointed questions, still survives and has not been
reprimanded.
How top Executives of AKU have
been kept in the dark was reflected by another incident shortly
before the students were expelled on May 4. The team which was
preparing to take off for Washington as tickets had been purchased
and seats booked, was told on Tuesday that Police had charged
the three students of murder and on May 7 this case will be heard.
So they had to cancel their trip.
But
this information was available to most of the mid-level AKU Administrators
and was in fact revealed to the media by the Doctors Group in
Washington on April 25. But those who were not told were Mr Lakha
and his office. Something is gravely wrong with AKU systems, it
appears.
Mr
Lakha confirmed this in his letter to South Asia Tribune
on May 5: “I have learned yesterday that the police has
submitted the charge of accusation of murder before the Sessions
Court Karachi East. The trial has commenced against the accused
persons. Since the trial has commenced, and the matter is subjudiced
before a Court of law, it would now amount to contempt of Court
to make any comments or respond to your questions … I hope
that you will understand my inability to respond in detail to
your questions.”
