A privacy breach allegedly occurred at the Akhtar Saeed Medical & Dental College (AMDC) hostel in Lahore, where a hostel worker reportedly recorded a female student in a washroom, prompting student protests and subsequent threats from the administration.
The incident began when a female student was taking a shower, and a hostel worker allegedly started recording her from outside the washroom. Another student reportedly witnessed the act and attacked the worker with a cleaning wiper, which caused the worker to panic, drop his phone, and flee the scene. When students began protesting the privacy violation, the university administration called a meeting.
According to the reports, A campus meeting was convened in the auditorium to address the resulting protests over the security failure, but it reportedly escalated into the administration attempting to suppress evidence of the incident. During this assembly, Chairman Akhtar Saeed allegedly shouted at a protesting student, instructing her to stay quiet because she was not the individual who was recorded. Additionally, the Chairman was documented recording the protesting students on his own device, an action students allege was done to target them for future disciplinary measures.
Students claim that the administration is currently threatening the girls to remain silent about the event. The management is reportedly forcing students to hand over all phone and video evidence of both the initial incident and the auditorium meeting to prevent the information from leaking externally. Furthermore, students revealed allegations that a similar security failure allegedly happened last year as well which involved hidden cameras being installed in the hostel washrooms, an issue the administration reportedly kept a secret from the student body. Students are now questioning the complete lack of safety and privacy, noting that they pay significant hostel fees of 3.5 lakh PKR, an amount that does not cover food or electricity. According to some reports, FIR against the worker has been lodged by the police.
Talking to The Student Herald’s representative, Eqbal Khan, Secretary General Progressive Students Collective said that “such incidents expose not only the lack of safety on our campuses but also the acute power difference which exists between university administration and the student body. The only solution to this problem is proper representation of students in the Anti-Harassment Committee which is only possible through the restoration of the student unions”.
