HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, on Thursday suspended implementation of a decision of Plagiarism Standing Committee of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan through Sindh University’s syndicate against Dr Azhar Shah, former president of the Sindh University Teachers Association (Suta).

The bench comprising Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Salahuddin Panhwar said that such a decision shall be subjected to outcome of the petition. The court issued notices to respondents additional advocate general (AAG) Sindh and deputy attorney general for Sept 8.

The petitioner cited the vice chancellor of Sindh University, Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Plagiarism Standing Committee as respondents. He said he got a degree of PhD from School of Computer Science, the University of Nottingham, the UK, in 2011. The University of Nottingham is one of the top ranking institutions of the world. The petitioner said he had been elected vice president of the Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic Staff Association (FAPUASA).

He questioned the decision of the plagiarism committee dated March 2, 2015 whereby the petitioner was blacklisted on the HEC website and benefits of the HEC were withdrawn for two years along with a ban on his membership of statutory bodies of the University of Sindh due to alleged charges of self-plagiarism and inclusion of two new names of co-authors in journal paper.

He said the decision was based on a fake complaint and the plagiarism committee did not call for comments. Under provision of the plagiarism policy, chancellor/governor was supposed to be intimated regarding conduct of inquiry and finding of Plagiarism Standing Committee as one of the co-authors was acting vice chancellor at the time of investigation, he said.

He said he had already placed proper citation at footnote of journal articles so it was not plagiarism or self-plagiarism. The committee illegally ignored comments of focal person office of anti-plagiarism, Institute of Computer Science & Mathematic, University of Sindh (Prof Dr M.Saleem Chandio), addressed to Dr M.Y. Khuhawar, Prof Emeritus and Executive Editor, Sindh University Research Journal.

He said Sindh University had not adopted the HEC Plagiarism Policy through its statutory bodies (i.e. Syndicate, Senate and Academic Council). He said there was no provision in the ordinance of the HEC that it could directly impose penalties on university teachers, bypassing statutory bodies of respective universities.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play