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| Imran Khan, whose nephew has been accused of homophobia. |
Hassan Niazi, who is studying for a master's in international human rights law at City University London, was a candidate for the position of student union president when the tweet about Bilawal Bhutto, of the Pakistan People's Party, was picked up by student journalists.
In response to a tweet about Bhutto hosting a cultural festival, Niazi, who has worked in Khan's political party in Pakistan, wrote: "hahaha wet dream. I doubt he is even capable of it. Waise he is worse than a faggot #babychicken".
Niazi also posted a tweet simply saying "faggot?" and another saying "I think faggot he won't mind so it's fine". He later responded to criticisms by saying "so this wasn't joke but frustration."
Zoe Burdo, secretary of the LGBT society at City University, says: "He used inappropriate language. He referred to someone as a 'faggot', using derogatory and offensive terms. Then when he was called out on it he defended it instead of apologising."
Niazi subsequently lost his campaign to be president of City University's student union by two votes to Rima Amin, who will become the first female president at City University for 11 years. Vice presidents Issy Cooke and Natalia Rajapakse will join her to make up the university's first all female sabbatical team.
During the campaign, Niazi lodged a complaint to the union and called in his legal team to try and suspend the polling process. He argues the criticism has been part of a "victimisation campaign" to scupper his chance of becoming student union president. He says:
"During the election campaign I was victimised, initially by being labelled as anti-semitic, then homophobic and also as a racist. This forced me to lodge a complaint against my opponent and the people who published this material.
"I requested the suspension of polling until my complaint reached any conclusion. I got a disappointing response to my complaint and the vice-chancellor gave a very cold reply. I will again lodge an official complaint for the wrongdoing within the campus.
"The word 'faggot' which got highlighted during the election was clearly a victimisation campaign against me and words were taken totally out of context from one of my tweets.
"I am a student of human rights and want to be a voice of every student. I would never say anything to hurt someone. I again reject these false allegations against me during the election campaign. I am not used to these terms. And if my tweet offended anyone I apologise.
"However the tweet was taken out of context to damage my election campaign. I believe this victimisation also resulted in my loss by only two votes."
Scott Campbell, a student at City University who has been involved in setting up new student paper the Square, agrees that the controversy damaged Niazi's election campaign. He says:
"He lost the election by two votes and he was in the lead before. I know a number of people who went and changed their votes."
Giulio Folino, the current student union president at City University, watched the drama unfold. He says: "Homophobia, or discrimination of any kind, is always unacceptable.
"During my time in office, we have introduced liberation officers to help address student concerns about these issues. The students' union has been working with the university to develop the anti-harassment and bullying policy to ensure it explicitly protects those at risk, which includes LGBT students."
Published in the XReports.net, on March 9th, 2014 | The guardian
