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HEC releases PU grant: Plagiarism issue
HEC releases PU grant
Lahore, Feb 28, 2008: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has released the
Punjab University's frozen grant after acknowledging the Punjab
governor/chancellor's decision of sending five faculty members, accused of
plagiarising international research papers, on compulsory retirement.
PU
spokesman Dr Mujahid Mansoori said that the HEC had released Rs53.4 million
grant for this year. Saying that it was half of the total grant, he added the
HEC had committed that the remaining grant would also be issued in due course of
time.
Plagiarism postmortem sparks off fiery debate
Lahore: The Punjab University Academic Staff Association on
Wednesday split over the issue of the governor/chancellor's powers of reviewing
the Syndicate decision and giving a new verdict of sending five faculty members
on compulsory retirement.
The PUASA general-body meeting, chaired by its
president Dr Mumtaz Salik, got embroiled in a heated debate at the Institute of
Chemical Engineering and Technology auditorium when Dr Salik presented a
resolution that said the chancellor was illegally interfering in the autonomy of
varsity's statutory bodies and no university teacher or official should invite
the governor to attend any function at the university, otherwise, the teachers
would protest against his visit.
The general body unanimously adopted the
resolution that plagiarism was a highly condemnable act. It, however, stood
divided on the chancellor's action of reviewing the syndicate decision and
sending five faculty members of the Centre for High Energy Physics on compulsory
retirement.
As the members argued that the governor should have referred
the case back to the syndicate to review the decision instead of making his own
decision, a number of teachers contended that the PU Act of 1973 gave clear-cut
revisional powers to the chancellor to review statutory bodies' decisions and
give his own verdict.
The academics also split over the resolution that
the governor should not be invited to the university campus and after a detailed
debate, the demand was withdrawn from the resolution. However, the house agreed
that the teachers had the right to protest and that they could stage protest
when the governor would be visiting the campus.
Meanwhile, the PUASA news
release said the general body described suspension of psychology department
chairman Dr Mian Aftab and the governor's orders for compulsory retirement of
CHEP's faculty members "a mala fide decision as well as a bid to harass varsity
teachers".
The body said the governor had taken a harsh decision of
penalising teachers while getting 'required' report from a two-member committee.
It said it was a matter of grave concern that the governor had challenged the
syndicate decision because it had representation of his three nominees as well
as those of the education department and the Higher Education Commission. It
also said the decision would create problems for the new vice-chancellor as well
as the new political government.
The news release also said: "The PUASA
general body has unanimously demanded that the governor should withdraw his
decision, otherwise, the teachers would launch a protest campaign to pressure
the government that it should respect university's autonomy".
It said the
university teachers unanimously condemned plagiarism and endorsed that it should
be eradicated through legislation classifying its intensity. It also demanded
that the HEC stop blackmailing universities by freezing funds and penalising
teachers through the governors and allow the statutory bodies to perform their
duties in a free and fair manner.
The news release demanded that the HEC
should allow teachers to remove plagiarised research work from their curriculum
vitae within a specified date instead of opening a Pandora's Box. It would end
an environment of harassment in universities and the issue of plagiarism once
and for all.
COUNTER-STATEMENT:
PU spokesman Dr Mujahid Mansoori
said that the executive body had misled the media through its news release
because the general body did not decide unanimously that the governor should
withdraw the compulsory retirement orders.
He also said the general body
did not authorise the association to prepare a protest campaign plan which would
be followed by all university teachers. He said a number of general body
members, including Dr Aurangzeb Alamgir, Khujista Rehan, Prof Dr Iftikhar
Baloch, Prof Bashir Ahmad, Dr Hafeez Ahmad and he himself, criticised those
elements that were making efforts to save the plagiarists.
Dr Mansoori
said the Teachers Front executive meeting had regretted that university teachers
committed plagiarism, but it welcomed the governor's verdict that led to the
restoration of the dignity and image of the Punjab University the world over.
The association, he said, also criticised the previous PU administration, led by
Arshad Mahmood, for showing non-serious attitude in the high-profile case of
plagiarism.
"There would have been no uproar, had the previous
administration taken a decision that was acceptable to the teachers as well as
the HEC," he added. Dawn
Chemistry conference concludes
Lahore: The concluding ceremony of the 18th National Chemistry Conference
'Role of Chemistry in the Development of Health, Industry and Environment' was
held at varsity's Chemistry Institute on Wednesday.
Addressing the
ceremony, PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran said suggestions, presented
in the form of over 400 research papers on various topics in the conference,
could be used effectively for the solution of various problems faced by Pakistan
in the field of health, environment and industry.
He said the research
papers, read at the conference, were indeed a big step towards the solution of
many problems faced by the country in health, environment and industry involving
chemistry.
He said all scientific studies were inter-related deeply and
chemistry was very beneficial and applicable to our daily life.
Over 500
chemists and researchers from all the four provinces attended the three-day
conference.
MA Social Work result
The
Punjab University Examination Department has announced the result of MA Social
Work Part-II Annual Examination 2007. As many as 26 candidates appeared in the
exam and 17 were declared successful. The roll numbers of the successful
candidates are 22978, 22979, 22980, 22981, 22982, 22984, 22985, 22986, 22987,
22988, 22989, 22991, 22992, 22994, 22995, 22996 and 29192. Detailed result is
also available on university website www.pu.edu.pk. The News
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