Six students get degrees without passing

A faculty member of Quaid-i-Azam University allegedly hacked into a professor's computer and changed results.

ISLAMABAD: The faculty of Quaid-i-Azam University is entangled in a messy investigation involving a faculty member accused of a severe breach of ethics. The faculty member has been suspected of hacking into a professor’s computer and tampering the results of six MPA students to enable them to qualify their fourth semester.

Faculty member of the MBA department Dr Ajmal Waheed had failed the students for not submitting their internship report--a prerequisite for passing the semester.  Waheed said pressure tactics were being applied by the Department of Administrative Sciences (DAS) in-charge Ghulam SK Niazi, who later allegedly hacked into Waheed’s computer and changed the students’ results.

Official documents reveal that Waheed had been assigned to evaluate the internship reports of 40 students, out of which 17 failed to qualify. However, the DAS in-charge allegedly pressurised Waheed into passing the students. Waheed said he refused to comply and reported the incident to the examination controller in March 2010. Later, the 17 students who had failed to qualify registered themselves for the 5th semester and submitted their internship report to Waheed in the first week of June 2010.

To avoid any confrontation, the teacher requested the DAS in-charge to form a committee to conduct viva voce of the 17 students to give them another chance. In the evaluation, six students out of 17 failed to qualify. In a letter to the
Vice Chancellor, Waheed said he submitted the computerised results to the department on July 13.

But later, the DAS in-charge allegedly asked a member of the IT department, Hina, to provide him Waheed’s computer password. After refusing initially, she eventually allowed him access to Dr Waheed’s account. He changed the students’ results on July 15.

“This is a clear case of fraud, forgery, cheating and deception,” Waheed said in a letter to the Vice Chancellor. “If I am an unfair, biased or corrupt teacher, the examination controller can re-evaluate all of my results and if found guilty, I may be kicked out of the university.”

Recently, these six students were also issued MBA degrees despite the inquiry against them. Out of the six failed students, the internship reports of Tayyab Sultan, Kazi Ali Mustafa and Kashif Ali Junejo were rejected by the teacher on charges of plagiarism.

After Waheed requested the VC to investigate the matter, four committees submitted their findings to the department, but were ignored. The Vice Chancellor Dr Masoon Yasinzai constituted yet another committee on October 15 that was directed to submit a report within seven days.

The committee met again on Wednesday, but chairperson of the committee Naveed-i- Rahat refused to divulge details on the matter when contacted by The Express Tribune.

The Vice Chancellor Dr Masoom Yasinzai said that the entire fiasco was a “procedural lapse” as it was “only an internship result and not a regular exam.” He said the concerned teacher should have handed over the result to the dean instead of the examination controller. However, he said that students were awarded their degrees as per the rules.

When in-charge DAS Ghulam SK Niazi was contacted, he refused to comment on the issue, stating that his name would be cleared after the inquiry committee concludes its finding.

Meanwhile, a visually impaired former MSc student of the History Department, Shireen, pleaded that the examination controller refused to grant her four grace marks.

Her request was turned
down by the university syndicate in its meeting held on August 31 even though it had been previously agreed upon to grant her leeway.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2010.