Instructors facing accusations still part of IBA

Whistleblowing professor being held guilty of violating the IBA Code of Business Conduct

KARACHI:

A faculty member at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, is being reprimanded after bringing to light a case of academic dishonesty, which involves allegations that two instructors were involved in the publication of several papers in an academic journal several years back, all of which were swiftly withdrawn at that time.

A total of 7 joint research papers by two instructors, Dr Asad Ilyas, currently serving as the registrar, and Dr Nasir Afghan, Head of the China Study Centre, were published in the same journal titled “Business Review” a few years back. To make matters worse, some within the university have alleged that these papers were actually the work of the two instructors’ students.

Instead of denying the veracity of these allegations, the IBA has tried to sweep the matter under the rug. On the other hand, the whistleblowing professor, Dr Mohsin Butt, who recently exposed the academic dishonesty, is being held guilty of violating the IBA Code of Business Conduct (CBC) and has been asked to apologise.

Well-placed sources within the IBA confirmed that the matter was reported about 8 years ago during the tenure of the former IBA director, Dr Ishrat Hussain. As soon as academic dishonesty began to echo within the IBA community, Dr Hussain took immediate notice, and the university’s administration removed all copies of the journal from IBA offices and took them into custody.

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Moreover, documents available with The Express Tribune suggest that Dr Hussain, who was in the final days of his tenure at that time, formed a three-member investigation committee in this regard. It’s pertinent to mention that Dr Hussain stepped down from his post within a few days of the incident, and since then, the academic dishonesty has not only been suppressed but the investigation report of the committee has not been made public until now.

The issue resurfaced when Dr Mohsin Butt, a professor at IBA, raised it on the social media platform LinkedIn. He provided evidence in this regard and severely criticised the two instructors, Dr Asad Ilyas and Dr Nasir Afghan, who had published the 7 articles in the journal. Dr Butt, in his posts, termed the matter as academic fraud.

In response to Dr Butt’s posts, a formal complaint was filed with the IBA administration on behalf of the two professors, stating that Dr Butt was defaming them by using social media as a weapon. Following the complaint, a 5-member grievance committee was formed by the current Head of IBA, Dr Akbar Zaidi, in March this year.

A member of the grievance committee, speaking to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, shared that the committee queried senior IBA professors about the matter. “A senior faculty member confirmed that the journal was withdrawn from all faculties shortly after its publication. The committee was informed that this step was taken because teachers had raised objections against some of the authors. As a result, the editor of the journal was also dismissed. However, no further action was taken in this regard by IBA management.”

Dr. Qazi Masood, who was leading the committee instituted by Dr Hussain, confirmed this information while talking to The Express Tribune. “The committee’s findings were quite clear. The Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) policy mandated that only 2 research papers could be published concurrently. Therefore, we withdrew the volume of the Business Review in which 2 professors published 7 research articles at once,” said Dr Masood. He further revealed that the papers did not count in the promotion process of Ilyas and Afghan. “The withdrawal of the papers resulted in lifetime damage for both as their promotions were stopped,” he concluded.

Given Dr. Masood’s revelation, The Express Tribune reached out to both Dr Ilyas and Dr Afghan to inquire about the veracity of the claims that Dr Butt levelled against them. However, both refused to comment on the matter, stating that they were not entitled to speak to the media. After initially declining to provide a comment, Dr Ilyas later directed attention to a statement available on the university’s official website.

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In a statement provided by Maryam Touheed, IBA’s spokesperson, the university admitted that the faculty member who raised the allegations was disciplined after the probe found the allegations to be baseless.

“The research publication where the articles in question were alleged to have been published does not exist. Therefore, the allegations made in the article are not grounded in reality.” According to Touheed’s statement, the university’s stance is publicly available on the IBA Business Review website. In this regard the Express Tribune also reached out to Dr Zaidi, Executive Director of IBA; however, no response was received from his end.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2023.