A fourth-year medical student, Abdul Basit committed suicide after a university refused to allow him to appear in the final year exam for being late. Administration of Hamdard College of Medicine and Dentistry Karachi refused the student to appear in the exam because he reached late in the campus due to traffic jam.
After refusal to appear in exam he visited the principal’s office and requested to allow him to appear in the exam, but the principal reportedly asked him to appear in the supplementary examination. Frustrated over the refusal, the student went outside the campus, drew fuel from his car and immolated himself. Engulfed in flames, Basit was walking towards the campus when some students saw him and tried to put out the fire with some cloth. Later he was shifted in the hospital but died a few hours later during treatment. On the other side head of the Varsity was of the view that it was against the rules to allow him to take the exam after half an hour had passed. If he could allow Basit to appear in exam then it would be a clear violation of the rules. Principal also makes sense in his views.
Indeed it is a hugely tragic incident. There is need to explore the distressing circumstances that compelled a young man to abandon all his hopes and decided to take his life in a painful manner. Suicidal rates have increased around 60 percent worldwide but nothing substantial done in Pakistan to work on the subject. Students face numerous pressures during their student life which includes academic pressures, peer pressure and unreasonably high parental expectations.
Government should launch multi-faceted suicide prevention campaigns.
