Governor being misled by HEC on charges of plagiarism

EMANUEL SARFRAZ
LAHORE - The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan’s blacklisting five faculty members of Punjab University’s Centre for High Energy Physics seems to be a biased decision, as they are not considered plagiarists by the foreign institutions.
Prof Dr Fazal-e-Aleem, who has earned the status of meritorious professor, Maqsood Ahmad, Rashid Ahmad, Sohail Fazal and M Alam Saeed were accused of plagiarism with respect to six different publications. All are continuing to write research papers as the American Institute of Physics never alleged plagiarism against them and continues to publish their papers.

Of the six papers stated to have been plagiarised, Dr Aleem was shown as one of the authors of five of them. Interestingly he was not among the authors of the paper ‘Benefits of Basic Science’. The paper ‘Current status of exotic hadrons’ was part of the allegations. The paper was revised through an errata handed over to the editor on April 9, 2006. This was before the complaint was lodged by Dr Mujahid Kamran then serving as dean of science at the Punjab University. The other articles ‘Computational methods: Tool for Electronic Structure Analysis of Solids’ and ‘Path of Elementary Particles’ were also retracted and the thought republished. Interestingly this fact was not considered during the inquiry. The HEC in its newsletter declared Dr Aleem and other CHEP faculty members of plagiarism even before the final decision had been made.

A researcher is well within his rights to send an erratum to the publisher to rectify any mistake made by him or to add/ omit anything published in a research journal or even textbooks. Errata/Retractions are a normal and internationally acknowledged way of dealing with inadvertent mistakes, human and electronic errors and even to incorporate further developments or changes. It would be of interest to notice that Nobel Laureates like Rutherford and Chairman HEC Ataur Rehman had errata published to their research papers.
Meanwhile, ‘Current status of exotic hadrons’ was published by AIP as part of the conference proceedings held in Cairo. Editor of the proceedings and the Program Chair Lotfia El Nadi on receiving the complaint termed it “out of place”. “The paper is a review article in which the authors presented recent experiments of worldwide laboratories, not their own work. The authors do not claim any results of their own. The authors handed over errata. We consider the complaint of Dr Mujahid Kamran as out of place,” she wrote to the then VC. The referring conference committee found no plagiarism.

The paper ‘Technology in Aid of Physics Teaching’ was never published and Dr Aleem also did not participate in the conference.

The paper ‘Benefits of Basic Science’ was published in a web magazine ‘Science of Africa’. It was without and ISSN number and for this publication no credit can be claimed by the authors. It was not a research article but a popular one. The paper ‘Mystery of matter’ was not published in any research journal or conference. Therefore the issue of plagiarism could not be raised.

Total publications of CHEP faculty members from 2004 to 2007 was more than 180. The faculty of CHEP published their research work in journals of international repute including AIP Conference Proceedings, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review D, Computational Material Science and Physica B. Last year 20 research papers were published including ‘Evidence for BO’, ‘Evidence for the Rare Decay B+’ and ‘Search for Lepton Flavor Violating Decays tau +’. ‘Design and performance of high uniformity linear filament electron gun’ and ‘Ab-intio Study of Structural Properties of III Nitrides’ have been highly acclaimed.

Punjab University Syndicate fully debated the issue and settled the matter with minor punishment for the four lecturers. PU sources disclosed that HEC is exerting pressure on the Punjab University to again take up the issue.

As the issue has been settled by Syndicate, only the Chancellor/Governor can review the decision. According to sources the Chancellor is being misled about the whole issue. The fact that the AIP and the foreign institutions do not consider the five CHEP faculty members to be plagiarists was kept secret from the Chancellor.

“PU is the oldest seat of learning and has a prestige and reputation not matched by any other institution in sub-continent. It should not come under the pressure of HEC. The stand of the PU Academic Staff Association on the matter is clear. It has voiced its concern on the growing interference of HEC in the affairs of varsity.

“The new vice chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran was the complainant against Dr Aleem and other CHEP faculty members. Dr Kamran and Dr Aleem are both professors of Physics and their careers run parallel to each other. Dr Aleem has published more than 150 papers and won many national and international awards. He did not need to plagiarize for conference papers, which has no academic value.

“The whole issue was blown out of proportions and the fact that AIP and other international journals did not consider Dr Aleem and other members of CHEP faculty as plagiarists was not taken into account. It would be in the best interest of PU if the chancellor also takes into account the correspondence of foreign institutions with the then VC before taking any decision ” sources said.

This is a political case. The fired professors may win their case, costing money & prestige to the university. There are ample proofs that Dr. Atta Ur Rehman awarded favors to people in so called scientific conferences who are illiterate. They include his girl friend and other friends. No one is questioning that issue.

As you must be aware of the ping pong of plagiarism at the University of the Punjab. I believe that VC Mujahid Kamran has also committed plagiarism and unduly used his political influence in his position.

His competency can be judged that he was dropped in M. Phill (Physics) program at Quaid-a-Azam University, Islamabad in 1972.

There were some serious objections upon his selection raised by the chancellor’s office.

Prof. Dr. Shaukat Ali is an important member of kitchen cabinet of Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran. He has been accused of tampering his date of birth in secondary school certificate. An inquiry was conducted against him in which it was found that he is a sole beneficiary of the forgery in order to obtain bogus certificate. But the report was postponed after extreme pressure from Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran.

Prof. Dr. Shaukat Ali is head of Physics department and an important member of kitchen cabinet of Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran VC punjab university. He has been accused of tempering his date of birth in secondary school certificate. An inquiry was conducted against him in which it was found that he is a sole beneficiary of the forgery in order to obtain bogus certificate. But the report was postponed after extreme pressure from Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran.

Here are some of the facts that indicate how darely Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran violates law and misuse position to achieve his ends vide Tenure Track System rules.

A teacher to be placed on Tenure Track System must have fifteen (15) research publications at which at least five research publications during the last five years. Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran and his wife Prof. Dr. Najma Najam have no publication since last five years. Infect Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamranhas has no publication after 1995, but has got tenure track facility.

According to University Selection Board Rules, No appointee allowed to sit in selection board. Prof. Dr. Mujahid Kamran is so greedy that that he chaired Selection Board meeting to avail Tenure Track System.

Another illegal beneficiary of this scheme is his wife Prof. Dr. Najma Najam, who otherwise is ineligible for Tenure Track System as no person can avail this facility at least one year before retirement. Prof. Dr. Najma Najam will be retire on March 2009. She has been given facility of Tenure Track with twelve (12) advance increments against all rules and norms. ( Tenure Track System allow four increments).