LAHORE: The Punjab University (PU) athletes who have accused administration of forcing them to use performance-enhancing drugs on Tuesday rejected a five-member committee formed by the university to give dope tests to students and to investigate their claims that they were forced to take steroids.
“The chief minister should order an independent probe,” they told a press conference at Quaid-i-Azam Library.
Bushra Butt, Ayesha Qazi and Zeba Manzoor addressed reporters besides others. They showed their registration cards and university identity cards to the media and denied the Sports Department’s claim that they were no more PU students.
Butt said the administration had not issued any charge sheet or inquiry letter before expelling her from the PU Law College. She said she had not been allowed to sit in the examination.
She said her room in the Sports Hostel was set on fire a few days ago after she refused to take steroids. She invited the media to visit the room.
She said former sports director Mansoor Sarwar and Sports Additional Director Shamsa Hashmi were pressuring them to stop speaking against the administration.
The PU public relations officer (PRO) said meanwhile the signatures of two of the students on the July 3 letter to the chief minister against the administration were fake.
“Fauzia Perveen and Zonera Liaquat have written to the vice chancellor and told the media that their signatures on the application have been faked.
They said they were never administered steroids,” the PRO said in a statement.
Butt said Perveen and Liaquat had given the statement under pressure. She said she had received SMS messages from the girls saying that the Sports Department was pressuring them to change their stance.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2014.