ISLAMABAD  -  Senate Standing Committee on Fed­eral Education and Professional Training Thursday decided to ap­proach Chief Justice (CJ) Lahore High Court (LHC) requesting him to con­stitute a commission to probe into the Islamia University Bahawalpur (IUB) drugs and video Scandals issue.

The committee that met here with Irfan-ul-Haque Siddiqui in the chair decided to address the matter by writing a letter to the LHC CJ, urging the constitution of a judicial commis­sion to conduct a thorough inquiry.

The IUB Vice-Chancellor briefed the Senate body regarding concern­ing issues of drug sales, scandals, ex­ploitation, and dissemination of ob­scene material involving students and teachers on campus. 

He informed the committee about ongoing investigations by the Pun­jab Higher Education Department and a special inquiry committee es­tablished by the CM Punjab. 

Notably, three university officers were in police custody for their in­volvement in illegal contraband drug possession, the committee briefed. The matter of harassment and obscene videos was still under investigation. In light of the gravi­ty of the issues, Senator Siddiqui re­marked that this has the potential to not only disrupt education but also affect the lives of female students. 

During the meeting, the commit­tee reviewed “The Higher Educa­tion Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2023,” presented by Federal Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain. Senator Mian Raza Rabbani who attended the meeting on a special invitation pro­vided valuable historical context and proposed amendments to the bill, which were appreciated by Minister Hussain. Senator Mushtaq Ahmed also put forward amendments re­garding the HEC’s autonomy and the Chairman’s term of office, advocating for a four-year tenure.