PESHAWAR, Aug 25: The University of Peshawar has referred a case of plagiarism detected in an affiliated organisation, Institute of Education and Research, to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for action.

The university syndicate decided to refer the case of Professor Dr Wazeem Khan after a committee comprising HEC regional director Farman Ullah Anjum, Quality Enhancement Cell head Dr Mohammad Taimur Khan and Maj Tariq Mehmood found him guilty of contributing a plagiarised article titled “Constructing Objective Test Items Multiple Choice Forms” to a journal published by the university’s faculty of education.

The syndicate at the meeting also referred the case of Dr Abdussalam Khalis, a former member of the syndicate, to HEC for submitting fake experience certificates to the university.

However, a senior professor and syndicate member told Dawn that Dr Khalis case was irrelevant to the charges he was facing. “Dr Khalis opposed the illegal appointment of a registrar at the university and is now being punished for that,” he said.

The inquiry committee had found the charges against Dr Khalis baseless and the syndicate had unanimously decided to withdraw the case from the agenda of the previous meeting held on July 23, said another syndicate member. “Bringing it again to the agenda and sending the case to the HEC is against rules,” he claimed.

Dr Khalis denied all charges against him as baseless. “I am being punished for opposing some decisions of the university administration,” he claimed.

The university’s media officer, however, said that Dr Khalis’s case was discussed for the first time at the syndicate meeting. When asked why the university had sent the case of plagiarism to the HEC, the spokesperson said that although the syndicate was a competent authority to decide on plagiarism cases, it decided to let the HEC give the final verdict on the issue.