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The hottest topic these days on Pakistani social media, sexual harassment, keeps on delivering every single day. From the firing of the Patari CEO to Meesha Shafi’s allegations against Ali Zafar, the topic of harassment is being discussed by the masses, and every day, people are being exposed.
According to several different reports, a senior Forman Christian College Professor, Dr. Atif Alvi, has resigned from his post after allegations of sexual harassment started doing rounds against him. On paper, the professor had been fired from the job, but inside reports suggest that he had stepped down voluntarily, so word of his ‘predatory’ actions do not come out.
Dr. Atif Alvi was the head of the Computer Science department and was a renowned figure in and out of the university. The allegation against him came after several students informed administration that the professor had been demanding ‘personal favors’ in return of better grades for female students of his department.
This is what one female student wrote on social media in regard to the topic: “There are more versions of Atif Alvi lurking around FC. There’s a version who owns a dozen cats and has a foreign degree. There’s another guy who is too old to be thought of as a predator because we’ve all assumed his d*** doesn’t work properly given his age. There’s also a version who is quite literally sexual predation personified but we don’t talk about him anymore, and another version who, in lieu of counselling students, makes their skin crawl with her creepy questions. These are the ones my xanaxed brain can think of right now.
Ladies, non-binary folks, gender non-con-formative folks, gentlemen, everyone, please, I beg of you, it is time we do something about the filth that constantly surrounds us, harasses us, makes us uncomfortable in our own skin, and makes us feel unwelcome in our own home (FCC).”
However, when Pakistan Today contacted Dr. Atif Alvi, he had something very different to say in his defense. His exact words were: “Choosing to resign [in the middle of the semester] was not an easy decision for him but he had some issues with the administration which he can’t discuss as “the administration has been very good to him overall.”
He further added that: “I’m well off financially, so resigning isn’t a big deal that way. I will also get my provident fund. I deactivated my account as it was flooding with accolades from students and I was also receiving calls from friends. I am a good looking guy. People can get jealous.”
On contact, the administration refrained from commenting on the situation, but students, in huge numbers, have been speaking against the professor on social media under the hashtag of #MeToo and #TimesUp.
