A young couple at a university in Lahore— whose video went viral on social media in which the woman proposed to the man and later they embraced — have separated, the woman told a YouTube channel in an interview earlier this week.

Hadiqa Javaid and Shehryar Ahmed were in a relationship since last year and they had a plan to marry, said the woman. “This [the proposal] was not out of nowhere. He was also interested in me and we were in a relationship for six months. I planned to propose to him to make our relationship public,” she added.

The proposal took place in March and a video of it went viral, their embrace causing much outrage on social media. On the same day in the evening, Javaid received a phone call from the university administration to appear before the discipline committee along with her parents. However, both of them were unable to and later they received notices of expulsion.

As per the interview of Javaid posted on the YouTube channel on August 1, Ahmed had talked about their relationship while talking to other media outlets. However, she said that everything he said was not true.

Javaid said they were not in contact now so there was no chance of what Ahmed said about getting married [to her] after two years.

"How is this possible. We are no more in contact and our families are not involved," she said.

The woman disagreed with Ahmed about the university's decision to expel them. She said it was wrong for two reasons.

Recalling the incident, she said she received a call from the university around 9pm to appear before the committee. However, she couldn’t because she had to prepare her parents mentally and tell them ahead of their appearance before the university panel.

Right after receiving the call from university, Ahmed went to bring his parents to meet her family, she said.

“I had to think about the reputation of my family rather than saving a degree,” she said while talking about the second issue. “Ahmed said that he belonged to a backward area. Though we reside in a city but still we are not.. [that much progressive].. that I go to save my degree rather than the reputation,” Javaid said, adding the decision of the university was not right.

Meanwhile, Javaid also said that she had no idea that the video would go viral as there were not many people while they had set up the arrangements. However, a lot of students gathered and started making videos.

“I thought for a while whether I should propose to him or not. In a moment I decided to continue,” she added.

In her message to the young generation, she said: “It is important to involve parents in such matters and I should also do so along with proposing him [in the same manner I did].” She added that she shouldn’t arrange the event in the university premises.

Javaid also briefed about the backlash she received from relatives and the pressure from other sections of society and the people around her after the video went viral. But with the support of her father she was able to continue her life.

“Still I have issues but everything is easy with the support of my father. He advised me to continue my degree and said that such things happen in life,” she added.

It is pertinent to mention here that many political figures and social workers condemned the decision of the university to expel the students while a large number of people on social media criticised the action of the young couple.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, who was then held the portfolio of Science and Technology, in a message on Twitter asked the university administration to reconsider its decision.

In response to the video, Sindh Assembly lawmaker Sharmila Faruqui said: “Powerful! Expressive! Full of hope & love! More power to the youth!”

Posting a video of his song, UNODC Goodwill Ambassador Shehzad slammed the critics who were lashing out at the couple.