KARACHI: The Karachi University administration has yet to fix responsibility for security breach by supermodel Ayyan Ali, who last week entered the varsity with her five armed guards and a manager and stayed on the campus for almost half an hour, it emerged on Tuesday.
The ‘guests’, disowned by the university, were seated in vehicles with tinted glasses that were subject to a security check at the campus gates manned by the Rangers personnel, sources said.
The Rangers, according to some teachers, stopped the model at the gate but let her go on the intervention of students who told the security staff that Ayyan was invited to a department event.
Lack of security on the campus had always attracted severe criticism from teachers, but there hadn’t been any significant move on the part of the university to improve it, the sources said. This was despite the fact that the university had received Rs30 million from the Higher Education Commission two months ago just for security purposes, they added.
Speaking to Dawn, Dr Shabibul Hassan, head of the Department of Public Administration where the supermodel arrived to inaugurate a social initiative, said maintenance of security was the administration’s responsibility.
“I was contacted by the security staff just 15 minutes before the model’s arrival at the department. They asked me whether I had invited the model to the department to which I replied in the negative,” he said.
The security staff was also told not to let the model enter the varsity. Yet the model arrived at the department within minutes of his conversation with the security staff, the chairperson claimed.
“Five armed guards and a manager accompanied her. I told her that the university could not host her due to the controversies surrounding her. But she said she was here for a cause, insisting on meeting students.”
The university security staff was present during her stay at the department and it was their responsibility to take care of her guards, he said in reply to a question.
The model has been in the news since she was arrested for her alleged involvement in a currency smuggling case a few months ago.
KU registrar Moazzam Ali Khan said the university had set up a committee comprising senior teachers to investigate the case.
“The committee was set up last Friday and I don’t know the deadline required for the submission of its report. We are also awaiting a reply to the show-cause notices issued to the students who had invited her,” he said, adding that the campus security adviser would give his remarks on the case once he returned from Bahawalpur.
About lack of security, the registrar said that the university was in the process of taking some measures to improve security. He said the steps included setting up a control room, installing surveillance cameras at varsity gates and hiring private security guards to ensure better security on the campus.
Charged parking
According to the KU registrar, the university has started charged parking along the Silver Jubilee Gate in order to check cases of vehicle theft.
“I don’t know the actual amount of the parking fee, but the step would improve security outside the gate. The initiative has been taken on a trial basis and will be presented before the syndicate for approval,” he said.
Meanwhile, the university has banned entry of vehicles with tinted glasses. “All the people concerned are directed to immediately remove such glasses, otherwise the vehicle will be confiscated,” says a university notification.
Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2015
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