UHS entrance test Irregularities | PU plagiarism
Irregularities alleged in UHS entrance test
Lahore, Oct 1: The students and parents have alleged irregularities in the results of entrance test of University of
Health Sciences (UHS) for admission to medical/dental colleges in Punjab, as the
university has not displayed all four keys to determine the result by the
candidates on their own. The students and parents, while talking to the
media persons, said that the UHS authorities had uploaded on its website a
single answer key of 0 code out of four answer keys (i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3), which had
created a lot of doubts in the minds of the students and their parents about the
transparency in the result of entrance test. They alleged that the university
administration was favouring certain influential candidates by displaying only a
single key on the Internet. Besides, according to them, UHS authorities
had been preparing entrance test results on Optical Mark Reader (OMR) machine by
keeping it on Auto mode in order to declare the result within a minimum
stipulated time after the holding of the test. They claimed that some of the
university employees had told them that OMR machine gave correct result only on
Manual mode and showed errors on Auto mode, but this Manual mode exercise
required much longer time than the stipulated time of declaration of the result
of entrance test. The students claimed that they had attempted all the
questions correctly but the result displayed on the Internet was showing
otherwise. They informed that all the affected candidates had achieved over 90
percent marks in their FSc examinations. The parents of the students said that
it was incomprehensible that those candidates, who had achieved 1,000 plus marks
in FSc and were also satisfied with their performance in entrance test,
ultimately turned out to be failed in the entrance test. How can a
student fail with 16 wrong answers in Biology paper when he or she had achieved
over 95 percent result during his/her four-year academic career in Matriculation
and Intermediate examinations, said Mrs Zahida Iftikhar, mother of a female
candidate in the examination. The students and parents demanded to
upload all four answer keys or display attempted papers of the students on the
Internet to determine the result by the candidates themselves. The
students and their parents also held a protest against the UHS administration
over the issue. The news
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School timings changed again
Lahore: The government has again changed the timings of
public and private schools in the city. The new timings will be from 8am to 2pm from Oct 3. The government on Sept 26
had changed school timings (9am to 3pm) in the wake of dengue outbreak.
It had given 10-day holidays so that the schools could take preventive
measures against the disease. Besides, the government was told by experts that
dengue mosquito attacks early in the morning.
EDO Education Pervaiz Akhtar said that the government changed the timings
after inspecting the steps taken by schools against dengue.
"Private schools have assured us that they will continue maintaining
anti-dengue measures," he said and added the school timings would be reviewed on
Oct 15.
He said the branches of two private schools – Lacas and Lahore Grammar – were
closed on Wednesday for violation of the government directions. "Their students
were wearing sleeveless uniform," he said. Dawn
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HEC probes plagiarism by PU institute head
Lahore: THE Higher Education Commission (HEC) has launched an investigation into a case of alleged plagiarism
involving the director of the Punjab University s Institute of Education &
Research (IER), it is learnt. The HEC has taken action on itself
following failure of PU administration to cooperate with it in this regard,
reveals the documentary evidence available with The News. According to
sources, the commission had first received complaint about plagiarism involving
PU IER s director Dr Mumtaz Akhter early this year while quite recently, the
HEC, once again, received the same complaint. The sources said since the
PU administration remained unmoved over the issue, the HEC has decided to
investigate the issue itself. They said the commission had received the
complaint that IER Director Dr Mumtaz Akhter had published an article Islamic
Educational Approach to Environment Protection: A Strategic Approach for Secure
and Peaceful World, with her co-authors, Tanveer Iqbal and Mubashra Khalid, in
the International Journal of Business and Social Science (Vol. 1 No. 3; December
2010) which was actually plagiarised. They further said the original article
Conceptualising Islamic Strategy for Environment and Sustainable Development by
Dr Muhammad Ahsan was published in IPRI Journal (Vol VI, No 2, Summer
2006). A PU faculty member, seeking anonymity, said Vice-Chancellor
Mujahid Kamran was very particular about plagiarism and never missed a chance to
take up the issue to its logical end. While referring to the famous
alleged case of plagiarism at the PU Centre for Higher Energy Physics (CHEP) and
recent alleged case of plagiarism involving Prof Dr Zahid Mahmood of the
Institute of Chemistry, the faculty member said silence on the part of VC in IER
s plagiarism case was mysterious. He said Dr Mujahid Kamran did everything in
the CHEP case and now he was also efficiently looking into the Institute of
Chemistry s alleged plagiarism case but the IER s case was not being taken up by
him. The faculty member also expressed concern over the delay in investigation
by the HEC, saying at least the commission should immediately remove name of Dr
Mumtaz Akhter from the list of its approved supervisors. An HEC official
while talking to The New on the condition of anonymity said it was unfortunate
that despite many reminders, the PU administration did not pay heed. He said if
the plagiarism was confirmed in the particular case, the HEC might also suggest
action against the PU authorities for trying to hush up the matter.
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Spray at PU
Lahore: THE Punjab University (PU) Health Centre has completed spray process for prevention of dengue fever for the
second time, which was restarted on September 17. According to a press
release, the third phase is in progress and continue till the control of
epidemic virus. Almost all hostels, departments and residential colony
have been fumigated. Moreover, the Health Centre has also been providing
medical treatment and diagnostic facility to faculty members, students and
employees. The number of patients visiting the Health Centre has increased since
the outbreak of epidemic of dengue fever. The Health Centre laboratory
is carrying out more than 100 tests daily and charging Rs 60 for CBC test
facility from non-entitled patients.
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PU LLB result
Lahore: The Punjab University (PU) on Thursday announced the result of LLB Part-II Annual Exam
2011. A total of 2,989 candidates appeared in the exam and 1,557 were declared
successful with pass percentage 52.09. Detailed result is available at the PU
website www.pu.edu.pk.The news
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19th convocation of UAF held
Faisalabad: It is a matter of great concern for the agriculture sector to feed
the ever-growing population of country due to diminishing agriculture land,
traditional way of farming and climate changes as the agri land is standing only
0.13 ha per capita while it was 0.42 ha per capita in 1961. This was stated by University
of Agriculture Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmed Khan while addressing 19th
convocation held at Iqbal Auditorium on Tuesday as nominee of Chancellor of the
University and Punjab Governor Sardar Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa. The agricultural land is
decreasing manifold because of industrialisation and housing societies, he said,
adding that in 1972, agriculture land was 0.29ha per capita, in 1981 it was 0.24
ha per capita and in 2020 it would reduce to 0.11, showing a grim picture of the
situation. But, he said, the positive
side of the coin is that the production of the major crops have increased many
times owing to increase in per acre production and endeavour on the part of
agriculture scientists. It can be calculated from the fact that since the
inception of the country, the wheat production has boosted up to times, rice
production goes up to 13 times, cotton 12 times, sugarcane eight times, potato
116 times, citrus 191 times and guava 220 times. Dr Iqrar said in 1947, Pakistan
had only nine flour mills, zero rice mill and two sugar mills but now, the
country has 915 flour mills, 494 rice mills and 82 sugar mills. He said in 1947,
country had 14 ginning factories and two textile mills but now the figure has
risen up to 12,000 and 521 respectively. He urged the passed out
students to work with more devotion by leaving no stone unturned. Quoting the
words of Abraham Lincoln, he said: "sell your brain and bran to the highest
bidder, but, please do not sell your souls". Talking about growth of the
university, he said UAF is standing among top universities of the country with
2070 publication while Karachi University is at the top with 8974, Quaid-e-Azam
University at 2909 and Punjab University at 2180 publications. He said that as many as many
as around 13000 students were studying at the campus while the number was only
900 in 1961 when the university was elevated to the status of university. He
said that the university had produced 895 PhDs, more than 25800 postgraduate and
around 2400 graduate since 1961, who are rendering their services for the
development of the country. He stressed the need to upgrade the infrastructure
of the university to meet the requirement of the growing students as due to lack
of funds since the 1970, no major change in the infrastructure of the
country. Talking about the university
relations with the world, the university has inked 73 memorandum of
understanding with the world. Apart from it, the university
also enjoys good relations national as it has signed 52 with national
organization. The convocation was held in
two sessions. As many as around 4000 alumni of the university participate in
both sessions. Out of them, 48 alumni were decorated with medals for clinching
outstanding marks and positions during their course of study at the campus while
136 PhD scholars were decorated with degrees. The names of bronze
medallists for the year 2007 are Attia Batool, RanaBin Yamin, Abdul Mannan and
Farhad Zulfiqar. The names of silver medallists are Arbab Ahmad, Hafiz Qaiser
Yasin, M Yasir Ali, Fareeha Shami, Adbul Ghafoor, Ruqayya Kousar, Mazhar Iqbal
Zafar, M Naeem Mushtaq, M Usman Anwer, Ifra Saleem, Abida Perveen, Umar Farooq,
Nayla Andleeb, Samina Tanvir, Anwarul Haq Sahar Munir, Nasima Azim, Farhad Raza,
M Imran Arshad and Al Hafizah Shafia Tehseen Gul. For the session 2008, the
students who won gold medal were Zahid Mahmood, Aisha Khatoon and Samia Tanzeel
while Rana Bin Yameen and Abdul Mannan and Farhad Zulfiqar won bronze medal. The nation
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Four VCs issued notices in appointment case
Lahore: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the
vice-chancellors of four public sector universities and asked them to join
proceedings of intra-court appeals (ICAs) against dismissal of the writ
petitions by a single bench questioning appointment of VCs for six varsities and
the composition of the search committee. The bench, headed by the chief
justice, adjourned the hearing till October 10 and observed that no further
adjournment would be granted in the case. The judge said final arguments would
be heard on the same day. On Wednesday, advocate Azam Nazir Tarar,
counsel for the governor/chancellor, told the court that the Supreme Court had
also reserved a judgment on the petition of a professor of Bahudin Zakria
University. He requested the court to wait for the SC order as certain legal
points had been raised in the petition. He said it had also been pointed out
before the SC that if the chief minister s advice under article 105 was binding
on the government and, if so, to what extent. Senior advocate Anwar
Kamal, counsel for Dr. Hassan Amir Shah, argued that the order of the court
would directly affect 89 persons who were short listed by the search committee
and all should be made party in the case. The court, however, said there was no
need to make them party. On it, the Anwar Kamal pointed out that
appointment of vice chancellors at two universities - Government College
University Lahore and Bahudin Zakria University Multan - were already in
question before the court. But the VCs of remaining four universities were not
party in the case and the final outcome of the ICA would also affect them.
The court agreed with Kamal and directed the Punjab advocate general to
inform the VCs of the four universities - University of Education, Lahore;
University of Sargodha; Lahore College for Women University, Lahore; and Fatima
Jinnah University for Women Rawalpindi - to join the proceedings on the next
hearing. Dr. Yousaf Hayat, Dr. Shaukat Ali and Dr. Maqbool Hussain Sial
filed these appeals. A single bench comprising Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh had on
June 24 last dismissed their writ petitions against the appointment of VCs and
declared that the Punjab government s search committee had been acting lawfully
and no irregularities were found in the process of appointment. The news
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GCU, PFSA decide to join hands
Lahore: The Govt College University (GCU) Lahore and Punjab Forensic Science
Agency (PFSA) have decided to hold training workshops for professionals
including lawyers, doctors, investigators, and persons involved in law
enforcement to understand forensics. This was agreed during a
meeting of PFSA Director General Dr Muhammad Ashraf Tahir with GCU Vice
Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman during a meeting held on
Wednesday. GCU Dean Faculty Science and Technology Prof Dr Ikramul Haq,
Chemistry Department Chairperson Prof Dr Islam Ullah Khan and Academic Planning
and External Links Director Fauzia Shaheen were also present. Speaking on the occasion,
PFSA Director General Dr Muhammad Ashraf Tahir said that the training of
professionals involved in law enforcement would help creating an enabling
environment for equality, fair play, justice and rule of law. The nation
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Shortage of teachers at Oghi college protested
Mansehra: A large number of students Wednesday blocked the main road for an hour to protest lack of teachers
at the Government Degree College in Oghi. The protesting students were holding
placards and banners inscribed with slogans against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
government for not appointing teachers at the college. They said due to
vacant posts, particularly of science subjects, the precious time of the
students was being wasted and they were forced to arrange expensive tuitions to
continue their studies. They threatened that they would be left with no
other option but to launch protest rallies if vacant posts of the professors and
lecturers were not filled before October 2. The students dispersed peacefully
after the authorities assured them to take up the issue with the officials
concerned. The news
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