Students fed up with Karachi violence
Students fed up with law and order situation
Karachi, Aug 21: Students at various public-sector
universities have bitterly complained about the law and order situation
in Karachi that is affecting their education and driving them towards
despondency and a sense of purposelessness. In absence of any
notification from the University of Karachi (KU) or other universities,
students were left in a peculiar situation on Friday. They knew that the
university was open but the absence of public transport or the points
of the KU stopped them from coming to the university. Some students who
managed to come to their alma mater were greeted by empty classrooms
sans teachers. Sundus Saba and Kamal Ahmed were two such students who
found that there cumbersome sojourn to the university, after all, were
in vain. "Look sir, we are here after facing many difficulties and the
uncanny situation at the city roads only to find that our struggle has
gone down the drain. We have five days in a week for studies that too is
hardly implemented. Now we are studying only three or four days. How
can we cope with the studies, with our credit hours? It seems the
university and the teachers and staff are least interested in the
academic pursuit of the university. They (KU) have increased the tuition
fee but do not try to bring some sort of sanity in the university,"
bitterness was evident from Saba, a BS third year student in the Science
Faculty. Some students lounging in the Arts Lobby were furious at
the government and the university administration. I asked them why were
they angry at the KU administration. "Why?" a young student from the
English Department spoke indignantly. "They (KU) do not have a clear
policy to deal with these situations. They should announce that the
university was closed or open and make adequate arrangement for the
transport. The university is found lacking on this point. We are least
concerned that the governor did or did not announce the closure. The
university must have some independence to manage its own affairs,
decently," anger was evident in her voice. Other students nod their
assent. Former Dean Faculty of Arts Dr Muhammad Shamsuddin and
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mass Communications was present
in the department and agreed that the students were rightly indignant
and there should be some planning to deal with such situations. "We
should try to avoid academic loss like this". NED University of
Engineering & Technology and Federal Urdu University of Arts,
Science & Technology (FUUAST) had the same problem and the students
more or less voice their concern at the wastage of their academic year
in such a way. In the meantime attendance in the schools and colleges
was minimal as the fear; uncertainty compounded by the absence of
public transport compelled the students to remain indoors.
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KU chancellor's role sought in Dr Shaheen's 'plagiarism issue'
Islamabad: The Higher Education Commission (HEC)
will write a letter to Chancellor Karachi University (KU) Governor
Sindh Dr. Ishratul Ebad seeking his intervention in the issue of
plagiarism in which FBISE Chairperson and DG FDE Dr Shaheen Khan is
allegedly involved if rules and regulations are not followed in this
regard. According to the HEC sources, the commission has the only
option to find a conclusion in the plagiarism issue regarding the PhD
thesis of Shaheen Khan that it should seek help from Governor Sindh. "We
would ask the governor to play his role in his capacity as chancellor
of the university and bind the university to implement the decisions
being taken by the plagiarism committee," the source said. He said
that it was a lame excuse that she had forgot to insert inverted commas
in not one or two pages but in 100 pages. "If she had taken some
selective points from ECO document, it would have been ignored. Copying
word to word from some other document without citation is a clear case
of plagiarism," he said. The source said that usually in such cases
the original contribution of the candidate was also taken into account
and if the original contribution of the candidate was substantial in the
thesis, the plagiarized portion could be ignored. "Sometimes candidates
just take the material from other documents in order to thicken the
thesis but in case of Dr Shaheen Khan, the original contribution is also
not substantial," he said. He ruled out the possibility of sending
the thesis to "Board of Advance Research and Plagiarism". He said that
the thesis was sent to the board before its approval. "Once the thesis
is approved, it could not be sent to the board to review but to the
plagiarism committee," he said. The source also pointed out that
usually manipulation was done by the universities when they sent the
thesis to an external supervisor for approval. "In case of Shaheen Khan,
thesis was sent to an expert of banking whereas the thesis of Shaheen
Khan was on political science," the source said. He said when the
universities played such foul games and issued a rubber stamp to their
candidates, they made such efforts to hinder the process of verification
of the thesis. "Almost all the members of the committee except one or
two agreed that she was involved in plagiarism hence action should be
taken against her," he said. HEC Chairperson
Dr. Javed Leghari said that according to their information, the members
of plagiarism committee came to the conclusion that the PhD thesis of
Shaheen Khan was plagiarized. "We would ask the HEC member of plagiarism
committee Dr Iqrar who attended the meeting to write the details of the
meeting and then we will call KU VC Professor Dr Peerzada to inquire
into the findings of plagiarism committee. "If the university would not
comply with the decision of the plagiarism committee, we would
definitely look for other options," he said. He said that no
pressure had been exerted on KU to declare the degree of Shaheen Khan as
fake rather it was the decision of the plagiarism committee that she
was involved in the clear case of plagiarism therefore her degree should
be declared as fake.
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KU organises walk for flood victims
Karachi: The University of Karachi (KU) on Friday organised a walk under the slogan of "Save flood victims of Pakistan". Pro-Vice-Chancellor
(PVC) Prof. Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi led the walk which was attended by
all the deans, faculty members and a large number of students. Dr
Kazmi addressed the event and said that the current flood was one of the
most devastating catastrophic incidents throughout the world which had
affected more than 14 million people of Pakistan, not only this but it
had adversely affected the economy of Pakistan because of which the
country had to face long-term effects of it. She added, "The time has come when we should work for our country fellows without constraints of colour, race and creed.
The
KU is playing its part well by running the relief campaign for the
victims of flood she said adding that relief goods have also been sent
to the affected areas. The walk was followed by a seminar in which
the PVC, Dr Kazmi shared her experience of visiting the far off places
of interior Sindh which has received the least aid so far. Students of
the Department of Geography showed a well-designed video which depicted
the entire system of flood. Anila Kausar showed more than two dozen
satellite images of 60 cm resolution which told them about the direction
and extent of the flood. The images showed the river pattern of
Pakistan and the root of the current flood. The satellite images
showed how worst conditions prevailed at Tarbella reservoir through
excessive rains and accumulation of water.
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School donates aid for flood victims
Karachi: Showing the spirit of solidarity and brotherhood,
the students and staff of Dawood Public School have donated Rs2 lacs for
the flood victims on Friday. CEO, Dawood Public School, Sabrina
Dawood presented Bilquis Edhi a bank draft of Rs.200, 000/- (Two Lacs)
collected for flood affectees by the students and staff through
donations and a bake sale organised in the school at the function for
Independence Day celebration of Pakistan. Bilquis Edhi was the Chief
Guest of the Independence Day ceremony while Mansoob Siddiqui, the
Director of Directorate of Private Institutions, Sindh also attended the
event. The students from all the sections performed skits, speeches
and national songs with great zeal and fervour and displayed marvelous
discipline. The members of staff have donated one day salary for this
noble cause. The news
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