Medical universities fee charges on issuing degrees

Medical universities flayed for degree charges
Lahore, Oct 30: Young Doctors Association has criticised the medical universities for charging fees for issuing degrees to their graduates.

"Medical universities have made it a business and are making millions from thousands of young graduating doctors," said YDA leaders including Dr Rana Sohail, Dr Salman Kazmi and Dr Nazam Ali in a press statement issued here on Thursday.

They said that University of Health Sciences (UHS) was charging Rs 5,000 and King Edward Medical University (KEMU) was charging Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 from all graduates in the connection. They said that the two universities had collected up to Rs 100 million approximately, which was being spent on trivialities of the administrations of the two varsities.

They said that these two medical universities were also charging degree fees from those doctors, who applied for degrees after one year of passing their examination, whereas as per calendars of all other public sector universities, the degrees were issued without charging any fee after one year.

They demanded of the government and the KEMU and UHS administrations to fix a maximum of Rs 500 fee for issuance of degree within one year and issue degrees to the graduates without any fee after one year. They also demanded of the government to immediately hold financial audit of KEMU and UHS. The news

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Plagiarism: accused UET teacher becomes accuser
Lahore: Turf war is intensifying among the faculty members of the electrical engineering department of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) as a senior teacher facing plagiarism charges tries to turn the tables on his opponents.

Prof Dr Suhail Aftab Qureshi, who was accused of plagiarising research publications as well as MSc theses supervised by him, has identified alleged cases of plagiarism committed by his two colleagues and accusers -- Prof Dr Muhammad Naeem Ayaz and Associate Prof Hafiz Tehzibul Hasan.

Prof Qureshi has also identified alleged cases of plagiarism committed by chemistry department chairman Prof Dr Muhammad Inam, who is also convener of the UET Plagiarism Committee probing into allegations leveled against him (Mr Qureshi).

In separate letters written to UET vice-chancellor, Prof Qureshi has alleged that Associate Prof Tehzibul Hasan plagiarised one research paper and five theses, while Prof Dr Muhammad Naeem Ayaz plagiarised a research paper and a thesis. He also sent a complaint to the VC that Prof Dr Muhammad Inam had allegedly plagiarised three research papers as well as a PhD thesis.

It is learnt that the UET's director-general (research) has considered the complaint against Hafiz Hasan and referred it to the varsity Syndicate, which will be considering his case in its meeting scheduled for Saturday (tomorrow).

VC Muhammad Akram confirmed that Hafiz Hasan's case would be discussed in the Syndicate meeting.

It is alleged that Hafiz Hasan had plagiarised Jay Erdman's paper "Effect of PWM invertors on AC motor bearing current and shaft voltage," which was presented at IEEE conference held in Dalas, Texas, USA in 1995. This paper was copied in a thesis under the same title in 2004. In the same year, Mr Hasan allegedly copied this material in his research paper "Bearing current and shaft voltage due to PWM invertor".

The VC also said the plagiarism cases identified by Prof Qureshi against Prof Ayaz and Prof Inam were still pending with the DG (research) and would be discussed in the next Syndicate meeting upon the DG's recommendation.

Prof Qureshi's three research papers and as many MSc theses were sent to the previous Syndicate meeting that issued a charge-sheet based on probe committee report.

Prof Qureshi moved the court stating that the Syndicate meeting had technically lacked quorum. Consequently, the court suspended the charge-sheet issued by the Syndicate.

Following the court orders, it is learnt, the UET scheduled a fresh Syndicate meeting not only to ratify the charge-sheet issued against Prof Qureshi but also all other decisions taken by the Syndicate meeting in question.

VC Muhammad Akram said the Syndicate lacked quorum technically because two deputy secretaries, one each from the provincial education and finance departments, had attended the meeting, while the UET Act said only an additional secretary could represent the department in the absence of its administrative secretary. He said that he himself decided to ratify all other decisions taken by the Syndicate so that no such problem could surface in future.

Prof Qureshi alleged the varsity administration was favouring his opponents because the VC had given the acting charge of the chairmanship of electrical engineering department to Prof Ayaz, who was junior to him. He also said that he had complained to the VC that Prof Ayaz had taught two subjects to his (Prof Ayaz's) son and acted as his (son's) examiner against varsity rules and regulations. Dawn

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Closing schools is like giving up
Lahore: I am ten years old and I can't take it anymore. Why are our schools closing, then reopening, closing and then again reopening? Why are we all scared of the terrorists? If they don't want us to study so we will show them that we can study at our home. Closing schools is like giving up. Nobody is talking about schools on TV. Why are we giving up? It is fine and probably a necessity now to improve security but we also have to do something to deal with the terrorists and stand up to them. -Student (Daily times)

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Nursery, KG classes closed
Lahore: The Punjab government has ordered closure of pre-nursery, nursery and kindergarten classes in all public and private schools in the wake of current security situation till further orders.

In pursuance of the government's decision, the executive district officer (education) for Lahore has issued an order stating that in the wake of current security situation all toddler schools and academies and montessori, kindergarten, nursery, playgroup and such classes in public and private schools will remain closed till further orders. Dawn

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Minister orders security at special education centres
Lahore: Minister for Special Education Malik Iqbal Channar stressed for ensuring security of special education centres and close liaison with district administration and police in this regard.

Addressing a meeting of District Education Officers (Special Education) here on Thursday, said terr0orism has badly affected the academic activities and it was encouraging that the whole nation was united against terrorists.

The security problems of the special children need special attention on humanitarian grounds by the quarters concerned, he said. He directed district officers to inspect the institutions and inform the heads of the institutions about security plan of the Punjab government.

The meeting was also attended by Secretary Special Education Muhammad Ilyas and other officers of the department. The news

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Govt giving top priority to education sector
Lahore: Punjab Minister for Education, Transport and Excise & Taxation, Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman has said that Chief Minister Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif is giving top priority to education sector and he desires that access of education should be available to each and every boy and girl child of the Province.

While talking to various delegations, the Minister said that 350-million Dollars will be provided by the World Bank for enhancing education sector expenditure and improved fiduciary environment, improved quality education, improved education access and equity and school management, governance and monitoring in education sector of Punjab.

The Minister said that that in result of the agreement signed with World Bank, an amount of Rs.350-million dollars would be available which would be spent on improvement of quality of education, access of all to education, school management, good financial governance and monitoring and with this agreement the targets for improving the standard of education, training of teachers, capacity building, equity and equality to bring low literacy areas at par with comparatively more educationally developed areas, he concluded. F.P.report

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Sceptical students confront Hillary
Lahore: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's charm offensive rolled into a wall of suspicion at one of Pakistan's top universities on Thursday as students grilled her on whether America was truly ready to be a steadfast partner in a time of crisis.

"What guarantee can the Americans give Pakistanis that we can now trust you ... and that you guys are not going to be betraying us like you did in the past," one student asked at a "townhall-style" meeting Mrs Clinton held at the Government College University in Lahore.

Mrs Clinton urged Pakistan's youth to stand firm against the forces of religious extremism, saying it threatened everything that both Americans and Pakistanis held dear.US officials have cast Mrs Clinton's visit to Pakistan as a chance to counter anti-American broadsides from extremist religious leaders and to showcase Clinton's personal affinity for a country she says she knows and loves deeply.

The students peppered her with questions about Washington's perceived policy slant towards India, the use of unmanned 'drones' to attack targets in Pakistan. Dawn

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PPSC appointments
Lahore: The Health Department Punjab has appointed Dr. Naeem Aslam, upon his selection as Professor of Cardiology (BS-20) by the Punjab Public Service Commission, as Professor of Cardiology (BS-20) in Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahimyar Khan, with immediate effect against an existing vacancy. The appointment shall be conditional to his furnishing surety bond to the effect that he will serve Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahimyar Khan, for a minimum period of 3 years. The news

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