The University of Peshawar issued a clarification on a news item pertaining to plagiarism stating certain elements from a political group were involved.
Through a rejoinder on Friday the administration stated, “This press conference is based on findings of the HEC committee which comes no surprise to the Vice Chancellor, University of Peshawar because the Higher Education Commission in its letter # 94-P/QA/HEC/UOP/2011/2097 dated 27/05/2011 written to the Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had already decided to impose a penalty without forming any inquiry committee or procedure into the case.
The HEC thus already had jumped to conclusions without inquiring into the matter which shows a partial approach and mala fide intentions. This in fact was the only inquiry in history in which the author under investigation was not called before the committee. The plagiarism policy of HEC point number eight section“E“ clearly reads that the author under investigation must be provided opportunity to justify the originality of their concepts.
The press release states confidentiality should have been maintained, however, the story became public when HEC high ups became sources of information. It said the HEC plagiarism policy states it intends to guard victims of false accusations, however, the University of Peshawar Vice Chancellor was being victimized after more than two decades of completing his research and PhD since he had become VC and had taken administrative decisions against rule violators.
The press release said the VC had no questions asked during his time as faculty member, however, a campaign was launched when he took disciplinary action against a teacher belonging from the progressive group of University of Peshawar.
Plagiarism threshold: The HEC Plagiarism policy states plagiarism cases be dealt by respective universities and the threshold is setup by the concerned University in light of the Quality Assurance guidelines of HEC. The percentage of allowed threshold decided by meeting of the Advance Studies and Research Board of University of Peshawar in light of HEC Quality Assurance guidelines, in its meeting held on 25/11/2009 was 19% allowed matching (threshold) for published research articles and 25% for thesis.
The plagiarism allegations against the Vice Chancellor were looked in HEC recommended software and the result was shown to be 18%. This is the same software which is being used all over the country and by HEC. The same document was checked manually and the matching percentage of Kulwant Kaur Book Pak Afghan relations to that of Dr Azmat Hayat Khan book was 17%. It is also pertinent to note that both have quoted original sources with different citation numbers.
The press release stated the case was in court and an unbiased decision would be issued because the author would get a chance to explain his point of view and the facts of the matter. It said the University of Peshawar considered the HEC’s recommendation of a penalty and the press conference organized by them as contempt of court (against PHC decision) and will take the case to legal corners. It claims that the victimizing campaign is spear-headed by Zubair Mehsud. The press release denied Zubair was being targeted, as claimed by a newsreport, for raising his voice against the VC.
The press release said ex-Law College faculty member Zubair had been terminated for engaging in political activities against the VC’s directives and the used of defamatory language when issued show cause notice to explain his position on the matter.
It is no susprize that the University Administration has issued such a mischievous and factually incorrect press release with a view to hoodwink public and avoid their wrath for the misdeeds of the Vice Chancellor. The press release accuses the Progressive Group for their involvement in raising the issue of plagiarism committed by the VC and alleges that Mr. Muhammad Zubair, Asst. Prof. at the Law College was engaged in political activities and using defamatory language for which he was terminated from service that is why he raised the issue in the press.
The fact is that Mr. Azmat Hayat was appointed as the VC of Peshawar University by the then Governor/Chancellor Mr. Owais Ahmad Ghani in May 2008 in total violation of the merit purely on the basis of their personal frienship and on the insistance of a leading political party of this province. Mr. Azmat Hayat was never a faculty member of this University as throughout his career he had served the Area Study Center – an affiliated institution of the University. He had no knowledge of the Act, Statutes or Regulations of the University nor did he have any respect for the statutory bodies and their members. Because of his stubborn and unreasonable nature, arrogant and vindictive attitude he soon thereafter got involved in violating the prevalent laws especially in appointments of faculty and administrative staff, allotment of houses on campus, transfers of staff and academic policy making.
In less than a year his reputation of a professor was tarnished by becoming publicly known for favoritism, nepotism, high handedness, disregard to the law and disrespect to the statutory bodies. within two years of his office term he quietly and secretly managed to bring amendments in the University of Peshawar Act 1974 through the KP Provincial Assembly, which became a source of discontent among the University teachers as well as source of embarrassment for the Provincial Government.
It was in this backdrop that in February the new Governor of KP was appointed and Bar. Masud Kosar replaced Mr. Owais Ghani. This was a welcome change not just for the province at large but for the University of Peshawar in particular because dark clouds of apathy, dismay and frustration were looming large over the future of the University due to bullish attitude of the VC and amendments in the University Act.
On this occasion Mr. Zubair made a speech to a gathering of students who were chanting slogans in favor of the new Governor. Being a blue-eyed of the former governor the VC issued a showcause notice to Mr. Zubair for this political activity without fulfiling the legal and administrative requirements for such an action. He did not stop at this but went on to officially writing to the US Educational Foundation in Islamabad that Mr. Zubair's Ph.D Fulbright scholarship (which was under process at that time) should be dropped. This vindictive, bullish and unreasonable attitude of the VC was condemned by all and sundry on the campus.
While Mr. Zubair was on the receiving end of the administrative high handedness of the administration, the issue of plagiarism of the VC was reported to Mr. Zubair in February 2011 by another colleague who had personally suffered at the hands of the VC, however, instead of going public without verification Mr. Zubair procured coipes of both books i.e. Dr. Kulwant Kaur's "Pak-Afghan Relations" (1985) and Mr. Azmat Hayat's "The Durand Line – Its Geostrategic Importance" (2000). On careful / minute scrutiny and comparison of both the books it became evident that substantial parts of the Ph.D thesis of the latter including its Introduction, main text of two chapters, coclusions and references were reproduced/copied verbatim from the earlier's published work. Zubair reported the matter to the Chancellor, HEC and University of Peshawar for further probe and action.
In reponse to Mr. Zubair's complaint, the HEC wrote to the Registrar, University of Peshawar on March 25, 2011 that the University should refer the case to Standing Committee on Plagisrism (as required by relevant law) and submit its findings within 90 days. For three months the Administration, under pressure from the VC, dragged their feet on the issue and it was never probed into through the required process. Instead they produced misleading a certificate claiming the thesis was run on the software "Turnitin" and the result shows less than 20% "similarity index" but on the count of verbatim reproduction from the original book the report was silent. Some senior faculty members were asked to sign this report but they refused it.
In the meanwhile an immediate retaliatory action was launched against Mr. Zubair whereby his LLM degree was questioned on the basis of a anonymous letter, he was suspended from service and charge sheeted. Besides, a dirty campaign of character assissination was launched in April 2011 against several senior teachers of the progressive group in the name of sexual harrassment of female students to divert public attention from the issue of Vc's plagiarism but nothing could be proved against any one.
From this it becomes clear that Progressive teachers have nothing to do with the issue of plagiarism as a group because many of us are still zealously serving the University in senior positions in aid of the administration. Since the administration it self is comprised of those elements who have been wrongly appointed/promoted during this VC's tenure and are beneficiaries of the system they are working hand in glove with the VC to protect him at any cost!
thesis thesis hotha hay, plagiarized (Naqal Shuda) ho kay original research ka natheeja
@Dr. Shafiqur Rehman: If u people knew tht Dr.Azmat degree is fake then y u guys did stand at time when he was appointed as VC of UOP….? The truth is that u all r hypocrites and just want to take more and more benefit from this university you people dont care abt its standard and its environment what u people care that how to be on higher post thts it……
Mr. True Pakistani! "wahi" has stopped after the last prophet we are ordinary human beings we had no knowledge or clue about his plagiarized thesis when he was appointed as VC but yes I agree we made a mistake. The reason for joining the administration at that time was no personal benefits but to strengthen the university and contribute to its progress and development under any VC. When we realized that things were going wrong, merit was violated, appointments and transfers were done on the basis of personal liking and disliking and statutory bodies were ignored I quit it. Trust me their is no lust for power on my part but all we want to see is smooth runing of the University on merit, rule of law and fairness.
ha ha ha
Shafique sahib. you found out about the wrongdoings of Azmat Khan the day you were not given extension as Chairman of the department to whcih you never belonged and your friend Zulfiqar Gaillani had made you its chairman. you remained chairman for 10 long years. in total violation of the policy of rotation of chairmanship among three senior most Professors and Associate Professors.
You accepted the post of Director P & D along with keeping the chairmanship, thus violating a policy decision of the Syndicate banning holding of two administrative positions simultaneously, a policy that you as member syndicate had presented in the Syndicate.
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Even after resigning from Dir P & D as protest against your removal from chairmanship and not due to your sudden finding out of wrongdoings of Mr. Azmat Hayat. you were all along a part of his all decisions. he always consulted you. your claim of ignorance is a lie. you knew about his plagiarism earlier, as your friend another psuedo intelectual Dr. Sarfraz Khan knew about it and had said so once in my presence in a hotel, during and NGO fnction over a cup of tea._further you continued to roam around in the official car even after resignation, without any shame. accpetance of the resignation by VC is irrelevant as you stopped attending your office immediately after submitting your resignation._Having said all this and knowing you are no better, Mr. Azmat Hayat is a plagiarist and must not only be removed but punished in accordance with law
Shafique is an excellent teacher and so cannot be what everyone is accusing of. he likes girls is no sin. he never forces anyone. if they are willing how can he say no.
Peshawar University is going down trhe drain. there is a plagiarist Vice Chancellor, there is an abusive foul mouth Assistant Professor, there is a self seeker Prof, former chairman and dir P & D, there is an upstart PUTA President who is in rush to grab everything, there are two professors of UOP at other universities and director IMS Hayatabad, who cannot wait to take over.
The government must act now. or the UOP is going down the drain. before its too late
Mr. Shafiq and all mentioned teacher involve in sex scandals. this is my challenge to all of PUTA and other who are dealers him self that we are innocents. agencyi
the sex scandal at university of Peshawar is 100% true. challenge
I also study in the university and I know that this case is only political war between VC and Dr Shafique group. Many cases of plagairsim and fraud have been known in the university. Shafiqe group knows that geology Professor Tahir Shah is their frend and he gave MPhil degree to a woman student on bogus data. And Shafique not any of his group members raise any voice against it while though everyone knows it. Appointments in Shafique’s department are also on favoritism based and he wants to accuse the VC only because VC tried to stop their illegal political activities in the university. I don’t know if VC is innocent but this case is only political drama.
Dear all, what the rulers of this country have done to this country, you all know. And again you middle class fight with each other over this small issue. There is an internal system in the university for addressing this issue, let it clear the things. We all know that our current rulers may sell this country…………….again discussion for such an issue. Karachi, the economic hub of Pakistan is burning, again you educated people waste your time for this thing which is 21 years old. Please think, that all other problems have been solved? Our intellectuals have so much time that they do politics in higher education institutes. This VC is there in UOP for the past 25 years and now they blame him. For God sake, wake up.
The standard of similarity index is set by HEC, dear readers so if the similarity index of VC book is less than that of HEC what is the issue with the pressure group who are trying to create things out of the blue, and yes at that time there was no HEC as well i.e: in 1990. And after twenty one years a faculty member backed by certain pseudo intellectuals are doing all this mud slinging.
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