Plagiarised PhD thesis: COMSAT pro-rector’s petition challenging probe dismissed

IHC Chief Justice observes petition is ‘devoid of merits’.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday dismissed a petition filed by COMSAT’s pro-rector Dr Haroon Rashid challenging the Higher Education Commission’s probe into his alleged plagiarised doctoral thesis.

Court also vacated an earlier stay order against the HEC.

IHC Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi dismissed the petition, observing that it was “devoid of merits”. Subsequently, the chief justice dismissed all the applications submitted in the case and also recalled the stay order.

Justice Kasi noted that constitutional jurisdiction cannot be invoked when a probe, being conducted under a policy which provides remedy of appeal to the petitioner, was being delayed.

In the judgement, the judge also observed that a factual inquiry was required to annul the HEC’s action, and under the existing policy, the petitioner maintains the right to present his case.

Rashid, who is also the chief executive officer of the National Testing Service, had moved the court against the HEC, which initiated a formal probe into his PhD thesis after allegations that he had plagiarised up to 72 per cent of the document.

Petitioner’s counsel Raja Abid Hassan said that his client vehemently denied the allegations of plagiarism. He accused the HEC chairman of waging a ‘media war’ against him.

On August 21, 2015 the HEC Quality Assurance wrote a letter to Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) Rector Dr SM Zaidi “to investigate the case as per policy within 90 days and share the outcome with the HEC”.

“The HEC has a plagiarism policy which lays down the whole procedure for investigating allegations of plagiarism as it is a serious charge,” Hassan had argued, adding that the HEC has not taken a single step in compliance with its own policy.

The policy has elements of confidentiality enshrined in it to protect the reputation of the accused until any charges are proven, he said.

Referring to a letter issued by the HEC assistant director on May 26, 2009, Hassan claimed that cases of alleged plagiarism prior to September 2007 could not be opened under the plagiarism policy. He added that Rashid had obtained his PhD in November 2006 — 10 months prior to the cut-off date.

He had prayed the court to restrain the respondents from looking into the allegation of plagiarism as the matter cannot be opened under the HEC plagiarism policy.

The 2009 HEC letter says that cases from before the announcement of the plagiarism policy would only not be taken up if the concerned authors were not claiming credit in any way for papers which are alleged to be plagiarised.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2016.