KARACHI: After announcing opening of admissions to a medical college that has yet to see the light of day, Karachi University recently took another hasty decision that involved a serious offence, misleading court and violating its own rules, it emerged on Tuesday.

According to the 2015 KU prospectus, the university has offered admissions to the criminology department in both morning and evening programmes. The university initially started a master’s programme in criminology in 1995 that was later upgraded and a department was set up in 2014, the prospectus says.

It is, however, interesting to note that even after two decades the university could neither develop a faculty in criminology nor a proper infrastructure such as a forensic laboratory that, experts say, is an important subject.

The only name mentioned in the faculty list is of Dr Fateh Mohammad Burfat, a professor that the university had declared retired in court back in 2012, though he is still working at the university.

Prof Burfat, according to sources, had been appointed chairman of the criminology department in violation of rules.

Sources said the professor, with other administrative officials, was instrumental in running a fake department of criminology parallel to the sociology department on the campus some years ago.

The malpractice was exposed in the media in 2010 and the university had to issue a clarification that “the criminology department doesn’t exist in the University of Karachi. However, criminology as a programme is approved for master’s degree in the evening classes only. In case any admission is granted in criminology department by mistake, it will be treated under the sociology department”.

The notification emerged after the university had enrolled a number of students in the master’s and PhD programmes of the so-called criminology department and were awarding them degrees from the same department. A student, who was refused to be awarded a PhD degree after the media revelation, took the matter to court and was later awarded a PhD in criminology on court’s order.

Some key points in the court judgement were: “He (the university counsel) stated that the department of criminology was created by a single person by manipulation of the university code.

“Learned counsel of the university states that since Dr Fateh Mohammad Burfat has retired on attaining the age of superannuation and since the Department of Criminology doesn’t exist, there is no successor of the department as it was a subject under sociology department.”

Though the judgement was issued in one specific case, the university later benefited all affected students that were enrolled in the ‘mistakenly’ created department and held no one responsible for the ‘mistake’.

Department gets ‘official approval’

The department of criminology was officially approved last month after the university syndicate, following approval from the board of studies and the academic council, also endorsed the idea.

Raising concerns over the approval process, senior teachers said that the syndicate had approved establishment of the criminology department, though there was no discussion over such an idea in the meetings of the board of faculty and the academic council that were held prior to the syndicate meeting.

“The proposal to set up a criminology department was neither on the agenda of the board of faculty’s meeting nor was such an idea discussed in the meeting. The meeting’s minutes circulated on May 15, 2012, however, showed that members accepted the proposal of setting up a criminology department.

“Upon this, a senior teacher at that time submitted a note of dissent to the dean of arts faculty (that now has been renamed as the faculty of social sciences),” a teacher said.

Later, the meeting’s minutes containing false information were approved by the academic council in which some teachers, who wanted to register their protest over the wrongdoing, were not allowed to speak.

At the syndicate meeting (held this year), the forum accorded final approval to the proposal.

“The subject of criminology is a highly scientific and technical one and there is not a single person in Karachi University right now with a degree in criminology. It would have been much better if the university had advertised the post as there are people in the country who have acquired degrees in criminology from abroad,” said another teacher on condition of anonymity.

Teachers also argued that Prof Burfat did not have his basic degree in criminology and, hence, was ineligible to become the department chairperson.

The syndicate, they pointed out, also deviated from its policy of selecting a teacher as department chairperson from a list of three senior-most professors of the relevant field for the job. According to sources, only Prof Burfat’s name was presented for the post of chairperson of the criminology department at a syndicate meeting held in the second week of last month.

The university administration’s partisan attitude was also evident from the fact that it issued a notification for Prof Burfat’s posting before the syndicate meeting, which was also against the university policy.

The vice chancellor was not available for comments.

Kuts president Prof Jamil Kazmi, who is also a member of the university syndicate and the academic council, admitted that Prof Burfat, with past administrative officials, was responsible for awarding degrees from a department that didn’t exist on the campus.

He also said Prof Burfat was removed from chairmanship of the sociology department on allegations of administrative malpractices.

“But he is academically competent. Though he got his basic degree in sociology, he has earned a name in the field of criminology through his extensive work. The syndicate selected him because it was his proposal to set up a department of criminology and he was the only applicant for the post of chairmanship at that time,” he said.

According to him, the creation of the new department would also resolve the conflict between him and other teachers that had been going on for years at the sociology department, where Prof Burfat is currently working.

Answering a question that why the university didn’t hold anyone accountable for running a ‘mistakenly created department’, he said: “The university did conduct some inquiries but I don’t know the results of those investigations.”

Deputy registrar (legal) Asif Mukhtar said: “The department was mistakenly created but I don’t exactly remember the context in which the court had stated that the department was created by a single person’s manipulation. The court comment on Prof Burfat’s retirement, however, was a typographical error on part of the court.”

When asked if the university had filed an application to court to rectify the factual error, he said: “No. Our purpose was achieved, though we can file such an application anytime.”

KU registrar Dr Moazzam Ali Khan said it wasn’t necessary to have the basic degree in the relevant field to become head of an academic department.

“My basic degree is in microbiology but I was made director of the Institute for Environmental Studies,” he said.

When asked why the syndicate didn’t follow its stated policy and that the post was not advertised to make the hiring process transparent, he said the university had limited time as it wanted to start the admission process early next year in the said department.

“The vice chancellor has the authority to make an appointment on behalf of the syndicate and anytime,” he said when asked about the issuance of an office order on the chairman’s appointment before the syndicate meeting.

He also rejected teachers’ concerns over Prof Burfat’s appointment and said it was not possible that someone was not allowed to voice comments during the proceedings of statutory bodies.

Regarding the department’s infrastructure and faculty, he said different options were being considered and classes could be arranged anywhere.

In his defence, Prof Burfat said: “I continued to do what my predecessors were doing. Second, no single professor could award a degree without the consent of the entire university apparatus (that involved its administrative officials, including the vice chancellor and teachers sitting in the statutory bodies).”

Published in Dawn December 10th , 2014