According to posts by his students on Twitter, Mr Askar, who was teaching at the University’s Institute of Archaeology and Social Anthropology, was driving
when the rainstorm hit and he had an accident as a result and lost his life.
According to his CV posted on the University’s website, he had completed his PhD coursework in the Department of Archaeology at Quaid-e-Azam University and had earlier obtained an M.Phil from the University of Peshawar’s Institute of Social Work, Sociology and Gender Studies. Prior to that he also obtained an MA in anthropology from the same university.
His responsibilities included teaching criminology and “social problems of Pakistan” to MA (previous and final) anthropology students, as well as supervision of fieldwork and theses of M.A. (Final) students. He was also on the visiting faculty of the Institute of Management Sciences, University of Peshawar and had been teaching an introductory course in sociology to BA students at the University’s Shaikh Zayed Centre for Islamic & Arabic Studies.
Before joining the university, Mr Askar had worked with the National Rural Support Programme in Malakand for one year.
His M.Phil thesis was on the “Role of Deenis Madaris (Religious Institutions) in the Character Building of Youth”. He had also conducted a fieldwork study on “Social stratification as a hurdle in social mobility” in the rural areas of Swat district in 2001. Till his death, the lecturer had supervised more than 30 theses in the master’s programme in social anthropology in the following areas: criminology, education, gender issues, child rights, child exploitation, women and development and ethnography
Some of the research articles that he published included: “Kalash Valley: An Overview of Cultural Practices on Transitory Stages in Human Life”; “Genesis of Gender Bias in Education: A case study in rural areas of Charsadda District”; “Socioeconomic and Political Impact of Peasant Uprising (Kissani Movement) in Charasadda District”; “Debt Bondage: A Sociological Study of Brick Kiln Workers in Badhber, Peshawar.
