Adviser (Quality Assurance & Learning Innovation)
Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.
Subject: Plagiarism by the Vice Chancellor, University of Peshawar.
Dear Sir,
Pease refer to my complaint on the subject to the Chairman and Executive Director, Higher Education Commission dated March 10, 2011, which was forwarded to your office with intimation to the undersigned. On March 14, 2011 your office informed me via email that the HEC will process the case as per Plagiarism Policy.
In the meanwhile, I have also come to know about your request to the Registrar, University of Peshawar (vide letter No.94-P/QA/HEC/UoP/2011, dated 24.03.2011) for proceeding with the subject case through the Plagiarism Standing Committee of the University as per HEC Plagiarism Policy and that the decision / progress may be communicated to HEC within stipulated timeline.
Let me first inform you that no action whatsoever has been taken by the University of Peshawar in pursuance of your letter. I met the Director Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) of the university and enquired about the progress on the case. He informed me that the QEC has not received any instructions from any quarter for initiating process on constitution of the Plagiarism Standing Committee till date.
Secondly, I also went through policy documents of HEC on plagiarism, including The Little Book of Plagiarism, HEC Plagiarism Policy, Standard Operating Procedures for Plagiarism Cases and Policy Decision Regarding Plagiarism Cases vide No.1-P/AD-QA/HEC/Gen/2009/1453, dated May 26, 2009 (available on HEC website).
The policy documents of HEC on plagiarism do not seem to me to have a provision for the case in hand as these presume the sitting Vice Chancellors could never be accused of plagiarism. The policy documents of HEC put in place a system that gives the responsibility of carrying out investigation into cases of plagiarism to the Universities and their so-called Plagiarism Standing Committees. The Vice Chancellor has the controlling role to play in terms of carrying out the investigation and constituting the Plagiarism Standing Committee. Thus the policy is not only flawed, illogical, impracticable but also illegal if the person accused of plagiarism happens to a Vice Chancellor. How on earth could the Vice Chancellor be authorized to investigate the charges of plagiarism against himself and constitute a Plagiarism Standing Committee for that matter! Would it not tantamount to making him a judge in his own cause? And would it not be in contravention of the universal and well established principal of law that 'no person can become a judge in his own cause' or 'rule against bias'?
The impracticability of the HEC's Plagiarism Policy in cases involving the Vice Chancellors is obvious from the fact that no action is being taken by the University of Peshawar in pursuance of your letter to the Registrar. The policy also enables the Vice Chancellor to sleep over the complaints of plagiarism against him for 3 months!
Now look at the consequences of the HEC's Plagiarism Policy in the instant case. The University of Peshawar has not initiated any process of investigation into the plagiarism of its Vice Chancellor and for three months even the HEC can not ask the university why it has not done so. In the meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor is completely free to abuse his administrative authority and in retaliation make me an example for others never to follow the suit. He is destroying my name and career and the HEC is watching it as a silent spectator.
Since I have unearthed the plagiarism of our Vice Chancellor, I have been made the constant target of retaliatory actions and victimization. Two show cause notices, a warning, charge-sheet and statement of allegations have been issued to me. I stand suspended from my service at present. The Vice Chancellor has also approached the United States Education Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP) on my back and recommended to it, on grounds / reasons not known to me till date, to cancel the award of Fulbright Ph.D Scholarship to me which I have earned through open competition. He is also threatening to oust my family from the official accommodation allotted to me on the campus of the University of Peshawar.
Keeping in view my example, what message the HEC is giving through its Plagiarism Policy to those who believe in and stand for academic and intellectual honesty: that after they have accused their Vice Chancellors of plagiarism, the HEC will be entangled in the web of its flawed, illegal and illogical policy and the complainants would be made to pay costs in terms of their career and good name!
Where is the HEC's policy of 'Zero Tolerance for Plagiarism'? Does the Plagiarism Policy promote it? Where is the justification for the credit that the former and present officers have been taking in the recent talk shows in electronic media for raising the academic standards of higher education! What was the need in the first place of assigning my complaint to the Standing Committee of Plagiarism? The case in hand is not a case of plagiarism by paraphrasing or stealing ideas for others in different words for which you might needed experts to detect the same. It is simply a case of academic decoity! Our Vice Chancellor has ditto copied 88 pages (133 paragraphs) in the same sequence from Dr. Kulwant Kaur's book/Ph.D thesis, including major and important parts of 2 chapters, conclusion and bibliography/references! You don't need committees to discover it. It could be done even by a student of 10th grade, even lower than that.
In view of the above, you are requested that instead of passing the buck to others under the shadow of its flawed plagiarism policy, the HEC must immediately make a declaration whether my accusation are right or wrong. Otherwise, after two weeks, I would be constrained to file a public interest litigation petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan in which amongst others I will have to make HEC a party through its Chairman. I may hold a press conference in Islamabad Press Club where I will expose the Vice Chancellor's plagiarism and show how the Plagiarism Policy of HEC fails to address the issue. I will also show to the people how one is punished if one dares to unearth the plagiarism of a Vice Chancellor in Pakistani Universities.
I hope you would respond to this communication positively and in time.
Thanks.
Muhammad Zubair
Assistant Professor (Suspended)
Law College, University of Peshawar.
Copies to:
1. The Chief Justice of Pakistan.
2. The Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court.
3. Senator Mr. Raza Rabbani.
4. The Chancellor / Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
5. The Chief Minister, KP.
6. Mr. Qazi Asad, Education Minister, Government of KP.
7. The Secretary to the Governor on Higher Education, Government of KP.
8. Chairman Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.
9. Executive Director, Higher Education Commission, Islamabad.
10. The Director Quality Enhancement Cell, University of Peshawar.
11. The Vice Chancellor, University of Peshawar.
12. Director Areas Study Center, University of Peshawar.
13. Mr. Martin Axman, Resident Representative, Hanns Seidel Foundation, Pakistan.
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