HEC to blacklist PhD scholars who plagiarised theses

The PhD scholars, who are allegedly involved in plagiarism and against whom the universities failed to take appropriate action, are soon to be blacklisted by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) as the letter in this regard has already been sent to their varsities.

According to the information, HEC after its meeting of plagiarism committee held on 10th November has finally decided to blacklist the faculty members against whom their universities were not taking appropriate action even after their proven plagiarism and repeated reminders by HEC.

Letters in this regard have been sent to three public sector universities: about Shaheen Khan to Karachi University (KU); about Prof G R Pasha and Ahmed Hesham Pasha, to Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Multan; and about Suleman Memon to Mehran University of Engineering

and Technology (MUET) Jamshoro.

According to the copies of letters available with this correspondent, HEC has given the deadline of 30th December 2010 to the universities to take appropriate action against those involved in alleged plagiarism. Moreover universities have been informed that after the deadline, the names of blacklisted faculty members would be placed on HEC website.

None of the above-mentioned universities has taken the required action against the alleged plagiarism committee which has prompted HEC to issue a warning letter asking them to take action before 30th December otherwise the above mentioned names of PhD scholars would be placed on HEC official website as blacklisted.

HEC Chairman Javaid Laghari said that HEC has a clear anti plagiarism policy and severe action would be taken against those cases where ample evidence was not provided against plagiarism.

“We have asked the universities to take action against plagiarism at their end including withdrawal of degrees otherwise the HEC would not

recognize the degrees,” he said.

Replying to a question as to why action is not being taken against the concerned universities, he said that they could not end the PhD degree programme of any university on the basis of one or two reported plagiarized cases. “It’s not fair to close down PhD degree programme if a university is producing 100 genuine

degree holders and then not taking action against one or two plagiarized cases due to their lethargic attitude,” he said.

However he maintained that the lethargic attitude of universities would not be tolerated for long as they should realize the responsibility and take action against the candidates involved in alleged plagiarism. The news