ISLAMABAD: Zia Batool was working at the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for over a decade in the capacity of Quality Assurance director general and was overseeing plagiarism cases throughout the country. But today she is struggling to gain her job back.

Ms Batool was working at the HEC on contract basis since 2003. Last year Islamabad High Court (IHC) had ordered for regularization of service but the order is yet to be implemented. These days she spends her time in courts for the execution of an order regarding her regularization.

At the HEC she was monitoring plagiarism cases from University of Karachi, Islamic International University, University of Sindh and Islamia University Bahwalpur among others.

In her absence, the quality assurance division is working on ‘adhoc’ basis as the incumbent director general Dr. Iftikhar Ahmed is working at the HEC on deputation basis.

Ms. Batool’s case is a reflection of governance and how serious issues like plagiarism are dealt with.

Over the last few years, plagiarism cases have risen because of an improper checks and balance mechanism and easier access to the work of others.

Although there are some softwares available for detecting plagiarism in English, there is difficulty in checking work submitted in Urdu.

According to the educationalists, even in English the existing software cannot detect 100 per cent plagiarism but it can detect only 10 to 15 per cent of ‘copy-paste’ work.

wider access to the internet has brought advantages to those engaging in scholarly work, it has also resulted in a wider dependency on other’s work. When one borrows from work that is another’s intellectual property without proper attribution it is considered ‘plagiarism’.

According to some PhD students, academics and educationalists, one of the biggest reasons for plagiarism in Pakistan is language issues. Scholars face difficulty in translating their own thoughts from their mother tongue to English. So they turn to the ‘copy-paste’ method not because of a lack of ideas or incompetency but because of their inability to compose a thesis in a foreign language.

Renowned educationist Professor Fateh Mohammad Malik suggests that the government should introduce legislation to discourage plagiarism. He claimed that a Rector of university is also accused of plagiarism and to submit a written apology to the president. Professor Malik said that theft of intellectual property should not be overlooked and the student or teacher involved in plagiarism should be sentenced with imprisonment.

According to the existing policy of the HEC on plagiarism, educational institutions themselves are responsible for controlling and punishing plagiarism.

According to HEC policy, if anybody involve in plagiarism a “Plagiarism Standing Committee” consisting of 3 senior faculty members (a member should be an expert or a senior faculty member) may investigate the matter.

Dr Ahmed Mukhtar, HEC chairman said that in order to ensure accurate investigation a software called “turnitin” is used to identify plagiarism. He said HEC is working on developing software for detecting plagiarism in Urdu, adding that the experts from the UK and the US have been requested to give their inputs in making the software as per international standards.

Facilities within different universities allow a certain degree of plagiarism to their research scholars. However, according to some academics there is no procedure for gauging the upper limit of ‘allowed plagiarism’.

Perhaps this is the reason that even the senior educationalists are at times accused of plagiarism. Shaheen Khan former chairperson of Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) has also been accused of plagiarism in her thesis submitted for her Ph. D in 2010. Interestingly, her case is discussed on the HEC website where she is currently working as director general.

Ms Khan when contacted denied these allegations. She said that her rivals had hatched a conspiracy against her. She said that it was the job of the university to raise objections if plagiarism is suspected. She claimed that Karachi University from where she did her PhD cleared her thesis without raising any objection.

The case of Shaheen Khan shows that there are some loopholes in the procedure for identifying plagiarism. When doubts had been raised about her thesis, there was no set procedure to check the veracity of allegations.

Academics insist that steps need to be taken to rectify this and ensure that research work is original.

Samar Rao, a PhD student at Quaid-e Azam University said that using the work of others is easy in Pakistan. “There is no concept of intellectual property rights, legislation and punishment for plagiarism”, he said.

“The only punishment for committing plagiarism is humiliation within one’s social circle “.

According to him, there is no mechanism for checking plagiarism and it is rare that an allegation is proven.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2014