The k2p blog

Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan : image US Embassy Pakistan

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Peshawar,  Dr Azmat Hayat Khan has been found guilty of plagiarism by a three-member committee of the Higher Education Commission that was constituted to probe the matter. The Higher Education Commission has submitted its report to Governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa who is also the Chancellor of the university. The Vice Chancellor has gone to court to prevent any actions being taken against him.

Noor Aftab in  The News.

University of Peshawar Vice Chancellor Dr Azmat Hayat Khan has been found involved in plagiarism by the three-member committee of Higher Education Commission (HEC) that was constituted to probe into the matter. …  Dr Khan, a former director of the Area Study Centre has been accused by a university teacher Muhammad Zubair, of including in his book titled ‘The Durand Land: Its Geo Strategic Importance’, published in 2000 by Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar, and Hanns Seidel Foundation, some passages from the book ‘Pak-Afghan Relations’, written by Dr Kulwant Kaur of Jammu University, Jammu, and published by Deep and Deep publications in 1985.

As per plagiarism policy, vice chancellors are responsible to constitute the plagiarism standing committee and committee will report to him but in this case the complaint is against the VC himself. Finding itself toothless in the said situation, HEC asked the Governor KPK to intervene and conduct an independent, impartial and unbiased enquiry against the incumbent VC, being fully in charge of the university. However, the Governor wrote letter to HEC and authorised it to constitute a committee to probe into the matter. 

Challenging the jurisdiction and authority of Higher Education Commission (HEC) in dealing with the cases of plagiarism, University of Peshawar Vice Chancellor (VC), Dr Azmat Hayat Khan has filed a writ petition in Peshawar High Court in which he has asked the apex court to refrain the commission from taking any action on the grounds of alleged plagiarism against him. …..

The complainant Mohammad Zubair believes that some political leaders of ANP were trying to cover VC by stopping the Governor to take any action against him.

Back in March, the complainant Mohammad Zubair, an assistant professor at the UoP Law College was suspended:

Mr Zubair had been accused of ‘gross misconduct’ under the University of Peshawar Employees Efficiency and Discipline Statutes, 1977 and charged with violation of the university rules. The teacher has been charged with taking part in political activities and making objectionable speeches. He has also been charged for direct and frequent correspondence with the chancellor and the HEC and delivering misleading information.

There were also reports in June that Zubair had complained of his life being threatened.

Though Vice-Chancellors are generally former academics, the appointments as Vice Chancellor are entirely political. The Awami National Party (ANP) is a political party and is very strong in the Pashtun dominated areas of Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh provinces. With party support and considering the balance of political forces in Pakistan it is highly unlikely that any serious action will be taken against the VC.

Tags: Azmat Hayat Khan, Education, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Muhammad Zubair, Plagiarism, Universities, University of Peshawar

This entry was posted on August 21, 2011 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Ethics, Universities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.