Former Higher Education Commission chairperson Javed Laghari. PHOTO: NNI
A probe committee has found that 30 per cent of the content of a research paper authored former Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairperson Javed Laghari was plagiarised from a European Union (EU) report.
An HEC official said that the research paper was copied from a 2002 EU report which is still available online.
Interestingly enough, Laghari — who remained HEC chairman for four years until his contract expired on August 27 last year — has reapplied for the post along with over 100 others.
The three-member committee, headed by University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan, has completed its probe after including Laghari defence on the issue. Sources said that the findings of the probe will be sent to the HEC further action.
Under HEC rules, severe plagiarism was defined as 20 per cent of the work being unfairly copied. However, under the HEC policy, anybody found guilty of plagiarism before 2007 cannot be punished because the anti-plagiarism policy was adopted that year and was not retroactive, while Lagari along and his co-author produced the research paper in 2003.
This was also corroborated by Dr Ahmed who said that the plagiarism was done before the anti-plagiarism policy was adopted on September 27, 2007.
Ahmad confirmed that they detected the plagiarism by using plagiarism-checking software, and according to him, 30 per cent of the content of the paper was plagiarised. He said that such old plagiarism cases were not entertained under the current HEC policy. “If action is taken against such papers, there are other hundreds of other plagiarised papers from past decades which will have to come under HEC scrutiny, which is an impossible task,” he said.
Interestingly, despite being head of the probing team, he felt that the entire exercise was a “conspiracy” against Laghari.
The paper by Laghari and Mohammad Nadeem was published in the Journal of Independent Studies and Research in July 2003. Laghari presented the same paper at a national research conference held in Karachi in 2003 while he was teaching at Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute Science and Technology (SZABIST).
While speaking to The Express Tribune, Laghari claimed that it was not a research paper but only an article. He
added that he did not contribute to the piece and only provided the data the Nadeem needed.
Laghari also said that the case did not fall under the HEC plagiarism policy as it was published in a magazine, adding “I never benefited from it and the co-author included my name without my knowledge.”
However, the research paper also figures in his curriculum vitae, still available on HEC website.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 27th, 2014.
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Crime is crime, he practically founded guilty but he is luckily saved!
The headline, "Laghari found "guilty" " is non-representative of the news itself
The news itself quotes the head of the HEC Committee, Dr Iqrar Ahmed, VC of the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, a respected and leading academic from a top ranked Pakistani University listed among the top 250 in Asia, as a "conspiracy" against Laghari, and that the case should not have been entertained under the current HEC policy, which only entertains papers published after 2007. No one is denying that 30% of the work was pasted from elsewhere, however, the main author M Nadeem holds himself fully responsible by writing, "Dr. Javaid Laghari had no role or contribution in the technical part of the report, who only helped me in collecting election data for Pakistan, and I had included his name in the paper just for acknowledgement". He also writes the paper in the first person (I, my) and acknowledges me in third person (he), which the news does not mention.
The report was published, without my knowledge, in 2004, in a non recognized journal. I became a full tenured professor of engineering in the US in 1992, full 12 years before this paper was published. Any academic with common sense would know I have nothing to gain from a non recognized publication, and also had no major contribution in the paper, a fact mentioned by the main author himself. However, the reporter by being both the judge and the jury has clearly played into the hands of the fake degree holders who have started a media campaign against me to tarnish my image and credibility.
Journalism at its worst form
The Truth needs to be dug out & must be brought to the limelight.The news calls for a genuine inquiry into the matter by a complete impartial committee and not including the people like Dr. Iqrar who being the head of the committee (as the report says) on one hand validates the 30 % Plagiarism and on the others hand seems defending the Dr.Laghari Sb.
i find it ridiculous that it is being emphasized upon that the act was committed before the anti-plagiarism legislation - and so it doesn't matter! plagiarism is still plagiarism! and no matter when committed it is ridiculous that a former HEC chair committed it.
Dear Dr. Javed Laghari Sb, We are with you. Dont worry. HEC criteria for plagiarism is out of merit already. We trust you. Go ahead
@sandip please don't tell me that india reinvented the wheel. trolls!!!
@Iftekhar: This whole news "report" is so poorly written that I wouldn't rely on anything written in it, including the quotes from Dr. Laghari. Trust me when I tell you that I worked closely with Dr. Laghari on the SZABIST plagiarism policy and this is an attempt to frame him. That's allI have to say on the subject. I might write a blog post about it, though.
@Nida Alvi: IF you think Dr. Laghari established SZABIST then I feel sorry for your ignorance.
Block Google :)
Dear Dr. Javed Laghari Sb, We are with you. Dont worry. HEC criteria for plagiarism is out of merit already. We trust you. Go ahead
@Bina Shah: But Ms. Bina Shah, there is a culture in our institute that every researcher or fellow has to add the name of his superior one without failing. So it was conveninet of Dr. Leghari to turn a blind eye to the article obut they say he has added it to his own CV. So read Dr Leghair statment again. Firt he says he provided the data, n mister nadeem used it then he says mister nadeem has sent an email that article was solely written by him. Ok fine why he has added that to his own CV when he has no contribution in that. And way back in those days 2000/2001 i had made it clear to Dr Leghari about Mister Nadeem ways of working. but it is surely the thing being dusted up to block Dr Leghari from HEC. so better he go back to SZABIST or as he was supposed to join 90 sponsored uni in the name of MQM founder father. HEC might need a new head and new style of working. Atleast wasteful Karachi office may get some sense.
@Nida Alvi
This Bungalow based university always remain among the top business schools of Pakistan whether its Ata Ur Rehman's tenure or any other.Secondly which university/college/school is not in the residential/industrial area whether it's IOBM (CBM) in industrial area next to "Nalla" or City/ Beconhouse Schooling system branches which are located in the residential areas across Pakistan.Before Javed Sahab there was no plagiarism policy in Pakistan after which almost majority of the PHD's of even universities like KPK,KU and PU had plagiarized thesis.HEC allows 20% plagiarism in thesis but SZABIST is the only university which allows only 10% else u get straight F and this was once introduced him.
Personally I like Dr. Javed lughari because during his period of chairmanship many politicians were not allowed to take part in general elections and some were jailed because of fake degrees.The investigation was done by the HEC.Due to this PML_N govt. does not want him as chairman of HEC again.
Go to Rozee.pk and see jobs are avaiblble to write thesis for UK and USA students but we always look down upon our people
I totally agree with you V above. His line of defense is extremely poor. But it must be a comment written in haste. I am still willing to give him cushion for that. I guess if someone can share turnitin report or at least link to paper of Dr. Laghari, we can easily review Similarity report ourselves and make a better conclusion. No point in speculating and judging
@Masood Khan: The report says it was "featured" in his resume but it didn't say how it was mentioned. Did he name himself as co-author or contributor of research? The newspaper reporting here has got some holes in it.
What a misleading headline and a self-contradicting article. Rightly pointed out by Dr. Laghari himself that the author has been victimised by the fake degree holders themselves. Shame on the editors.
@Bina Shah: What about this: "However, the research paper also figures in his curriculum vitae, still available on HEC website". Morale of the story: keep a partner along to get the blame when needed be.
The headline is judgmental...The report from the committee can not be a taken as Final Decission or Judgement ". This should have been checked and researched before making this news as MARKETING Gimic.. We should learn How to respect the educated people.
@Bitter Reality: I'm Pakistani and I didn't. Plus this isn't about some college assignment which undergrads are doing just to get through the BSc, this man is a PHD and the head of our HEC.
Story of the week .
@Khurram Awan wow you rote learner, I am a graduate of reputed uni of Pakistan. Students don't copy but do the proper research. During job people tend to remember only those things with which they deal on daily basis. They don't need to remember the definitions from A to Z to prove themselves a good researcher.
The point being missed here is not whether the hec policy was in place when he plagiarized. You don't need a law to tell you not to plagiarize - the HEC policy may be applicable to punishment, which is a totally different matter. The issue is that a person is passing off as his own material that doesn't belong to him. As the article states, he included this work on his CV and also presented it separately in 2005. What other proof does anyone need? AMagazine article or secondary school report or a PhD thesis, no matter what the work, you cannot copy 30 percent of the work and then claim that it was just an article - oops.
Respect the educated please, or the world will laugh at us as is happening these days. Our electronic and print media needs to be cultured!
This is the worst that can happen to a researcher. You can never say you didnt know, it was Dr. Leghari's responsibility to know if his name was used. A 2004 publication, he had ample time to distance himself from that piece of work. It sounds like one off happening, Dr. Leghari should get benefit of the doubt
I was a former faculty member at SZABIST when Dr. Laghari was Chancellor and together we spearheaded efforts to educate students about plagiarism and eradicate it from their work. Dr. Laghari was himself deeply committed to the anti-plagiarism cause. There is no possible way he has committed plagiarism or condoned it and his explanations that this was a magazine article, not a research or academic paper, and therefore doesn't require referencing, are perfectly reasonable. It's a shame that people are so ignorant of what plagiarism constitutes yet they are condemning Dr. Laghari for a crime he didn't commit.
@Khurram Awan: I had a conversation with an IT consultant who works as a "senior manager" at Deloitte. For many years he was a software developer and he claimed to know all about development, but he had no idea what PHP was!
It's the same everywhere. Unless people have direct experience with something they won't know anything about it.
I have a US degree from one of the best US university that is in their Top 20 rankings, and funny thing is for working in my own home country of Pakistan I had to 'Authenticate' my degree for these people of HEC who took ages to give me letter that it is approved by their so called 'standards'.
Being a student of Both leghari and nadeem, what made me laugh was that nadeem was able to plagiarize successfully and leghari took the risk of co-authoring with him. Nadeem is a good guy but not an academic
@unknown well said, knowing the definition is one thing doing in practical is another thing, and once you start doing something with passage of time you tend to forget most of the stuff you have studied and get master into what you are doing on job
How can it be termed as plagiarism since the copied item was taken way back from 2002 & plagiarism legislation was put into effect from 2007?
"Good Artist Copy, Great Artist Steal"
The title of of the news and the content is not worthy to be a NEWS. This is just to defame our people on the international level without proper investigation. These are the people above who help this country produce more PhD. Have some respect Tribune.
Reputation of the committee is also need to be checked. Political government is trying to destroy HEC.
@Khurrum Awan: Wawoo I am glad you know the meaning of Nyquist Criteria and know the meaning of Qurantization. You should be awarded with the Nobel prize.
--------- Real difference is that he is doing real work and not interested in theories. You are rotting the definitions and surely will be among PhD candidates or had recently got PhD based on few useless and worthless scrap papers. ----------------------
Be Impartial not judgemental. Every Pakistani having a professional degree has done that same to some extent. So please spare Laghari. Get A Life Please...
disappointing
The headline is misleading and not representative of the news itself. clearly, it is not a case of plagiarism because it is not a journal paper, but is a magazine article where references are usually not given. Plus It was published in a non HEC recognized journal, and it was printed 3 years before HEC even introduced a policy on plagiarism. HEC policy clearly says policy does not apply to past cases, as mentioned in the above news itself. No credit was received for this article as I became a full tenured professor in a major US university, SUNY, in 1992, while this article is 2004.
Lastly, the author has clearly written in the article itself, plus in a subsequent email clarification, that the article belongs to him alone, and he added my name without seeking my permission. Normally it is in the acknowledgement.
This, I believe, is a conspiracy to defame me before the selection of HEC ChairmN, which even the chairman of Plagiarisn committee, acknowledges. It is very poor reporting by a respectable paper, and the reporter has played in the hands of fake degree holders and their supporters.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Plagiarism is widespread and quality of our engineers and researches is not even equivalent to a Basic Technician in Europe and in America,. Recently I met one Senior Officer of One Mobile company and he got his Telecom degree from a Well reputed Pakistani University but he dont know that what is meant by a Nyquist Criteria and even what is meant by Quantization that is like fundamentals in Communication engineering.