PGC CAMPUS 10 INCIDENT
On October 11, 2024, a 17-year-old female student of Punjab College Gulberg Campus 10 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan was allegedly raped in the basement of the college building. The victim was shifted to a nearby hospital and admitted to the ICU in critical condition.
Violent protests broke out across the city, especially in various campuses in Lahore. On 14 October 2024, Punjab Police arrested one of the two suspects, who was a security guard at the college, from Sialkot while the other suspect, who was the driver of the van, is still absconding. On the same day, the registration of the college was suspended on the order of Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat.
Despite decades of struggle and progress in our society, we have failed to create a better and safer world as crimes against women are rampant across the globe. The recent Punjab College rape case and its administrative mismanagement is highlighting the failure of the system in our country.
Last week, there were reports on social media that a first-year student of Punjab College was allegedly raped by a security guard at a campus in Lahore on October 11, 2024. The public outrage that followed led to many protests, mostly by students.
Some of these marches resulted in injuries to students following a crackdown by police and security forces. According to reports, around 27 people were injured on Monday when protesting students clashed with college security personnel and Lahore Police.
To quell public anger, the Punjab Police detained the security guard accused of the alleged crime. The police are trying their best to solve the case and bring the culprit to justice. However, Deputy Inspector General Faisal Kamran stated that until the alleged victim is identified and no evidence of the crime is found, no action can be taken. He added that so far no report has been given to the police station or the college administration.
The protesting students rebelled against these explanations, claiming that CCTV footage of the incident had been deleted. This lack of evidence has led many to believe that these unconfirmed reports on social media may be an attempt to damage the reputation of a private college.
The Punjab Group of Colleges (PGC) issued an official statement in response to the alleged molestation incident, terming it as fake news and clarifying that no such incident took place in any of their campuses.
The biggest moral dilemma behind this alleged abuse is that it raises many questions that need to be answered. If the victim and her family refrain from coming forward, it is probably because of the stigma attached to this type of incident in our society, where instead of punishing the perpetrator, we blame the victim. This is why many attacks go unpunished and unreported. Although the exact number of these unregistered cases is difficult to ascertain, some believe that despite the anti-rape law passed in Pakistan in 2016, only 3% of cases are registered.
Last year, a civil society organization released a report on crimes against women in Pakistan on the occasion of International Women's Day. The report identified a 14.5% increase in sexual and physical violence against women across the country, particularly in Punjab. According to the report, 10,201 incidents of violence against women were recorded during the year.
Additionally, the report revealed that on an average in 2023, about 28 women experienced some form of violence per day in Punjab alone and one woman was raped every 45 minutes, according to 6,624 registered rape cases. This statistic does not include 626 kidnappings, 120 honor killings and 20 human trafficking cases.
This violence outbreak only includes reported cases. While we can only see the surface, there's a whole iceberg underneath that we haven't even begun to uncover yet, fueled by social stigma and fear of retribution, mistrust of the legal system. Hidden by low conviction rates, pressure from families, and secondary stigma.
Another big question is whether this is fake news, something that can spread like wildfire due to the nature of social media as the PGC claims. In this case, it can only be an attempt to destroy the reputation of the educational institution as suggested above. Whether it is false or not, The way the administration and authorities have preferred to silence the students rather than get to the root of the matter is a true tragedy that highlights the failure of the system at the institutional and societal levels.
