KARACHI, May 17 The University of Karachi's syndicate has unanimously approved the findings of a committee on plagiarism and decided that a formal inquiry should be instituted against three senior university teachers on charges of plagiarism.

The syndicate also decided that the services of the three senior teachers, whose research work was stated to be filled with plagiarism, should be suspended, reliable sources said, adding that they might be removed from their administrative posts at some later stage.

According to sources, the senior teachers are Prof Dr Jalaluddin Ahmed Noori, the dean of the faculty of Islamic Studies, Prof Dr Saeed Arayne, the chairman of the Chemistry department, and Prof Dr Najma Sultana, the wife of Dr Arayne and a former dean of the faculty of Pharmacy, who is currently teaching at the department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

The syndicate, which met on Saturday, also decided that the services of Zakia Bibi, a cooperative teacher at the department of Chemistry, be terminated immediately on charges of plagiarism.

The meeting issued a warning to a lecturer at the department of Food Science and Technology, Faiza Abdur Rab, asking her to apologise to the teacher who she wrongly accused of plagiarism.

The syndicate rejected the appeal of a storekeeper, Noor-ul-Amin, for review of his case pertaining to the change of date of birth in official documents. It was decided that the cases of both Prof Dr Jalaluddin Noori and Mr Amin would be forwarded to Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, a member of the syndicate.

Dr Noori is accused of holding two identity cards with different dates of birth. He allegedly changed his date of birth from 1950 to 1956. On this allegation, Dr Noori was once demoted from professor to associate professor. However, he was exonerated of the charge in a subsequent inquiry.

Taking a cue, Mr Amin requested the syndicate that he should be allowed to reduce his age in official documents by seven years by changing his date of birth. He cited the case of Dr Noori in support of his argument. However the syndicate, in its meeting last year, rejected the request. Later, he filed an appeal, which was rejected in Saturday's meeting.

Mr Amin is due to retire next year. Reportedly, the provincial minister for prisons, Muzaffar Ali Shujra, had also sent a letter to the syndicate to review Mr Amin's case. Mr Shujra couldn't attend both meetings of the syndicate.

Meanwhile, the syndicate approved the appointments of Prof Dr Rihana Firdous, Prof Dr Munir Wasti, Prof Dr Saleem Shahzad, Prof Dr Shafiq-ur-Rehman, Prof Dr Nusrat Idrees, Prof Dr Rahila Najam, Prof Dr Iqbal Azhar and Prof Dr Ihsan-ul-Haq as new chairpersons of the departments of Islamic Learning, English, Agriculture, Economics, Political Science, Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy and Arabic, respectively.

The statutes of the National Centre of Proteomics and the minutes of the academic council held on Feb 17, 2009 were also approved during the meeting.