The ongoing animosity between the GU Board and President Arsalan Ghani - as previously reported in Varsity - has continued to deteriorate in the last week.

The motion was to be discussed at a meeting of the GU Council yesterday evening, as Varsity went to press. It states that Ghani’s recent behaviour is “not acceptable from a GU President” and mentions “troubling issues” including his refusal to sign a job contract, editing the minutes of meetings, an unwillingness to engage with the GU board, recruiting interns for the GU without seeking legal guidance, and sending rude emails to members of the board. On Thursday evening, Ghani sent a letter to the Editor concerning the recent controversies within the GU,

The motion of censure states that “Mr Ghani believes that the Executive Committee Officers are attempting to take his power away from him”. Ghani himself has claimed, in the letter to Varsity (reproduced in full on our website), that since election he has experienced “a constant campaign of harassment to push me to the side and tie my hands”. He refers to the GU’s recent financial difficulties and says that “The Union has in effect been made totally dysfunctional. I sincerely believe that making the Union dysfunctional this year was the result of a conscious effort by a certain clique within the University to undermine student democracy.”

In his notes responding to the motion of censure, circulated in writing to members of the GU council, Ghani says: “I do believe that there is an attempt to sideline me within the GU, and I believe this to be politically motivated, due to my stance on the rights of students and as a left-wing activist and socialist.” He continued, “I believe that I am the victim of an attack against my natural justice, democratic rights and most of all on my mandate that I have from the Graduate students”.

He has offered a comprehensive defence of the motion’s accusations against him. The reason he gives for not signing the job contract is that as he was elected under the old constitution, which did not require one, signing it would be unconstitutional. Ghani claims that he only edited the minutes to correct an omission made when the minutes were taken by someone filling in in the Secretary’s absence. On the question of his unwillingness to engage with the board, Ghani states that clandestine meetings of the GU executive have been held without him. According to the constitution, the President is the only person who can convene Board meetings. Ghani claims that despite this, the GU Board has twice arranged to meet in his absence, and gives dates for these.He defended his decision to hire interns on the grounds that the Events Office had been consistently absent from board meetings. Ghani denies that his emails were intentionally rude and claims that he was simply acting within his remit as President.

The Council Committee for the Supervision of Student Unions (CCSSU) has recently declared that the GU is undergoing a constitutional crisis. Ghani claims that private solicitors have been hired to consult on resolving these constitutional problems, at what he believes to be unnecessary expense. He also states that the GU accounts have been frozen by CCSSU, and that the Charity Commission and the solicitors have requested that he not make any financial commitments at the present time.

On 7th September, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper The News International launched an attack against the GU board members, alleging that Ghani had been a “victim of racial discrimination after a campaign was orchestrated to marginalise him in the union.’ Ghani responded to the publication of the article by stating that he never wanted the issue to ‘go global’, that he had no idea that The News International had been informed, and that he was shocked to hear of its publication.

Speaking to Varsity last week, Ghani said that he had lodged an official complaint with the University on 29th August. The motion was proposed at a GU Council meeting earlier this month, but the meeting was adjourned before it could be debated. The consequences of the motion being passed are as yet unclear. In his letter to Varsity, Ghani finishes by saying that he believes the difficulties he has experienced with the GU Board are part of a broader campaign to undermine him within the University: “What I have seen and experienced over the past few months as Graduate Union President, is a politically motivated attack on the democracy and the proper functioning of our student organisations.”