On October 23, the red walls of the Institute of Business Management (IoBM), a private varsity in Karachi, reverberated with chants and slogans. “We want justice,” roared hundreds of students gathered at the entrance of the varsity’s main administration block.
“We came here to study, not to fight for basic justice,” read a yellow placard, the only one visible in the sea of protesters, all of whom were students. The demonstration, touted as one of its kind in the university’s three-decade-long history, created a storm on social media, with some terming it the ‘power of Gen Z’.
The phrase, which echoed across the world a couple of times this year, soon manifested: days after the protest, the university reinstated the female student, who had been expelled after she attempted to file a harassment complaint against a staff member.
The reinstatement was announced minutes before a larger protest was scheduled to take place outside the varsity today, in anticipation of which the institution had been shut for a week — something students say has never happened before, come rain, floods or even war.
“The Institute of Business Management has decided to reinstate the concerned student with immediate effect. This decision has been taken in the best interest of all stakeholders and to uphold the principles and values that IoBM has built and maintained over the past three decades,” the statement read.
“The decision was taken to prevent the situation from being aggravated any further,” the varsity’s spokesperson told Dawn.com.
Coming together
It all began on the night of October 22, with a Facebook post. A female student, enrolled in the Bachelor’s of Business Administration (BBA) programme, wrote in an unofficial IOBM students group on Facebook how she was harassed by a staff member from the transport department inside the university premises when she visited his office to collect her student card.
According to the student, when the matter was brought up with the administration, they blamed her, claiming that she and her family misbehaved with the university management, and used it as grounds to expel her from the institution.
When in reality, the student claimed in the post, it was her family that was misbehaved with.
For his part, the spokesperson of the university said that the student was expelled over the family’s misconduct after a disciplinary meeting was called. “But she did have a right to appeal.”
Meanwhile, the victim’s Facebook post spread quickly, reaching students across semesters and programmes. “Students voluntarily began demanding protests,” A*, a student at the varsity, told Dawn.com. The next day, at 12:30pm, the demonstration took place.
“And so many people showed up, it almost felt surreal,” she said.
Among the sea of people who were in attendance was also B*, a final year student, who was a stranger to the complainant. “I didn’t even know her name until then, but what I did know was that what had happened to her was wrong,” she said.
B* recalled how she was among the crowd of students who walked to the CBM building that day. There was an energy in the air, but also fear. “When we got to the entrance, members of the administration stood there, warning us of consequences.” Some students gave in and left, others held their ground.
In due course, the crowd swelled. Soon, B* found herself in the front row. “I remember when I looked back, I could see a whole raft of students; it looked like the entire university had come out.”
C*, another student from the BBA programme, expressed similar sentiments. “We all stood together peacefully, our voice unified and one,” he said.
The protest continued for an hour, until prominent members of the varsity — faculty members and even the university’s president — were forced to step out and promise the students that the matter would be looked into, A* told Dawn.com.
They were further reassured that the staff member who was accused of harassment had been fired. The same was also confirmed by the varsity in its Oct 26 statement: “[…] a transport personnel, who worked for the external transport contractor and not employed by IoBM, was immediately removed from duty and will no longer be assigned to IoBM by the transport contractor.”
‘We won’
“At the time, we were genuinely hopeful that the right decision would be taken,” A* recounted.
However, later the same day, students received an email from the management, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, stating that it had been decided to reinstate the student in the Spring 2026 semester, “subject to adherence to institutional policies and expected standards of conduct by the student”.
It further said that during the reporting of the incident, the “student and her family members engaged in aggressive and threatening behaviour towards members of the administration, including harassment of two senior female employees”.
“Their conduct resulted in disruption on campus. After a thorough review conducted under IoBM’s code of conduct and institutional policies, disciplinary action was taken based solely on her behaviour and not on the student’s original complaint,” it added.
The complainant denied these allegations.
The email, on the other hand, incensed the students, said B*. Other students Dawn.com spoke to agreed.
“Why was she forced to waste her semester? She had already paid the fee? Why was she being punished for being harassed?” C* questioned. Thus, a second protest was announced outside the administration building, set to be held at 12:30pm today.
But the students received an email on Oct 26 that the management had decided to move classes online for a week to “avoid disruption to academic activities due to the upcoming midterm examinations”.
“In all my years here, this has rarely ever happened,” said A*. She recalled that the varsity had never closed this way before, not even when former prime minister “Imran Khan was arrested” or during the rains. Meanwhile, the IoBM spokesperson told Dawn.com that moving classes online was not a new decision; instead, it dated back to the Covid-19 days.
While this shocked the students, it didn’t faze them, and they decided to continue with their plan. “If not inside the university, we would hold a protest outside it,” B* said. Right when she was leaving her house today, though, the students got yet another email.
This one read that a decision had been taken to reinstate the student with immediate effect.
“We got the email at 11:45pm,” C* said. “We won, finally.”
Need for reforms
While for Gen Z, this is yet another victory, for the rest, the incident reflects yet another instance of the absence of proper mechanisms to address harassment complaints.
“What ensued was a standoff between the university’s management and its students — ending only when sustained student protests forced the administration to withdraw its unreasonable demands,” said Jibran Nasir, human rights activist and lawyer, who had been following the case closely.
“This, however, is not a lasting solution,” he told Dawn.com. “Not every victim will have the strength to endure intimidation and coercion without justice.”
Therefore, the real issue remains the harassment itself, which the university failed to investigate and address, he said, adding that reinstating the student, though necessary, does not resolve the larger question of campus safety.
“From threats and conditional reinstatement to campus shutdowns and now unconditional reversal, this episode demonstrates the power of collective student action. It proves that reform cannot rely solely on policies or laws — institutions often remain apathetic until confronted by unified student resistance.
“IoBM must learn from this and strengthen its internal procedures for the safety of students on campus. More broadly, this case underscores the urgent need for functional and independent student unions to protect student rights,” Nasir added.
For his part, the IoBM spokesperson said that the varsity had decided to work on SOPs to enhance its harassment policies so that no such incident would take place ever again.
He insisted that the university has a policy on “Protection Against Sexual Harassment”. It remains unclear, however, how aware the student body is about the existence of the said policy.“All we know of is a harassment complaint box that is kept at the entrance of the CBM building,” said A*. “It is almost always empty.”
