ISLAMABAD: Rather than taking action against their own senior official, accused of plagiarism, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has been delaying making a decision for the last four years.

The HEC Department of Learning Innovation and Sports Division Adviser Shaheen Khan was found guilty of plagiarism by the HEC in her doctorate thesis, five years back.

Shaheen Khan, however, got a stay order in 2011 and managed to avoid disciplinary action. When HEC spokeswoman Ayesha Ikram was asked about HEC’s failure in taking action against Ms Khan, she refused to comment on the issue.

Ms Khan was awarded a PhD in political Science by Karachi University in 2009. In 2011, the HEC declared this thesis to be plagiarised.

At the time, Ms Khan was serving as the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) chairperson, on deputation from the HEC.

The HEC’s committee probing the matter, declared that substantial portions from Ms Khan’s thesis had been copied verbatim from the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) Guide Book, published by ECO Secretariat Tehran in 1999.

However, in 2011, she obtained a stay order from a court in Islamabad against the HEC’s inquiry committee, pleading that she was being victimised by the HEC administration.

Since then, the HEC has not made any significant efforts for the cancellation of the stay order. However, it stopped Ms Khan from using the prefix ‘Dr’ next to her name.

“Our officers are working hand and glove with Ms Khan, whenever someone raises the issue, they are told to stay silent as this is a serious issue,” said an HEC official.

He said to fulfill formalities, the HEC routinely sends letters to Karachi University, which the varsity never responds to.

The officer said that so far, the HEC has sent 18 letters to Karachi University to ‘probe’ the matter.

When asked about the HEC’s letters to the Karachi University, the spokeswoman Ayesha Ikram said the commission is handling this case properly. “Recently, we wrote another letter to KU,” she said.

“Writing letters to a university is not a way to probe this matter, if we are serious against the menace of plagiarism, we have to fight our case in the court of law against the stay order,” said another officer of the HEC.

He said that instead of taking action against Shaheen Khan, a few months back, the HEC gave her additional charge by making her adviser, a position of a 21-grade officer.

The officer said that whenever senior officials were asked about this case, they responded that they were trying to reach a ‘logical’ conclusion.

He said that the HEC has an effective plagiarism policy, but it has failed to implement the policy in true letter and spirit.

“We have not taken any stern and exemplary action against plagiarists so far. Several plagiarists have had their names cleared by submitting their written apologies,” the official added.

Talking to Dawn, Ms Khan defended her case by claiming that her thesis had been accepted by her varsity Karachi University so the HEC does not have a right to declare her thesis as plagiarised.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2015

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