Islamabad - Six senior faculty members of International Islamic University (IIU), in a demonstration of academic misconduct, showed fake publications in their career and received perks and privileges against their designations for years, The Nation learned on Thursday.
The documents available with The Nation revealed that the university administration on suspicion sent their research publications to the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which confirmed the bogus publications.
Sources said that the toll of faculty members with fake publication will surge as the university has sent a long list of the teachers to the HEC for confirmation of the research.
Out of six, three faculty members are also designated on administrative posts.
The verification report sent by HEC to The IIU confirmed that the sitting Vice President (VP) of the university Prof. Dr. Muhammad Muneer, Dean Faculty of Engineering and Technology (FET) Prof. Dr. Muhammad Amir, Chairman Mechanical Engineering Department Associate Professor (AP) Dr. Saeed Badshah, Director General (DG) Dawa Academy AP Law Dr. Muhammad Mushtaq Ahmed, AP History Dr. Mujeeb Ahmed and AP Dr. Naseem Razi of Law department were found involved in the academic misconduct.
According to the HEC rules, an assistant professor must have published 10 research articles in credible journals to be promoted to the position of Associate Professor, while an Associate Professor must have published 15 research articles to become full professor.
The HEC verification report regarding six faculty members mentioned that none of the teachers including four APs and two full professors had ten publications.
Details said, VP Prof. Dr. Muhammad Muneer, in his profile showed 21 articles published in international and national journals. However, the HEC evaluation report confirmed only two real articles in international journals and seven in national category.
Dean FET Prof. Dr. Muhammad Amir mentioned 28 research articles in different journals but HEC found only four of his articles real and didn’t recognize 24 of his publications.
Chairman Mechanical Engineering Department Associate Professor (AP) Dr. Saeed Badshah, claimed to be the author of 25 research articles, but his 21 publications were not recognized and only 4 declared positive.
Dr. Saeed Badshah had a strange case as the Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) in 2016 reported his dubious publications.
The email of QEC available with The Nation said “Final report is that Dr. Saeed Badshah has only 4 research papers in HEC recognised journals out of his claim of 25 papers. Rest of the papers are not published in proper journals”. The email further said Dr. Saeed Badsha papers are on fraud links and not on actual links.
Sources said that Dr. Saeed Badshah, in his professional career, also added the experience of working as ‘sales manager’ in a private office and the administration counted it as a teaching experience.
DG Dawa Academy AP Dr. Muhammad Mushtaq Ahmed claimed to be the author of 22 research articles but the HEC confirmed only five published in local journals and none internationally.
AP Dr. Mujeeb Ahmed mentioned in 12 publications in his academic career but HEC verified only four and declared eight of them unrecognized.
AP Dr. Naseem Razi presented 13 publications to the university under his name. However, HEC’s verification report confirmed only three publications in national journals while the remaining ten were unrecognised.
The HEC also expressed his helplessness in tracing few of the publications mentioned by AP Dr. Mujeeb Ahmed, AP Dr. Muhammad Mushtaq Ahmed and AP Dr. Naseem Razi, which were published in HEC recognized journals but not available online.
The HEC requested the university QEC to verify the publications on provision of the evidences by the authors.
Sources said that former rector IIU Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasinzai had initiated the verification process of the publications of the senior faculty members and the HEC had returned the report to the university in July when he was still the rector.
Talking to The Nation former rector, Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasinzai, who is on top of the list for assuming charge of the rector position IIU, confirmed that university had received the HEC report of around five faculty members.
He said the promotion criteria set by the selection board was not as per the rules of HEC. He said due to the different criteria the faculty members got promotions from the Board of Governors (BOG) also.
“QEC has not applied for the new HEC criteria,” he said.
He said the university has to investigate the matter thoroughly and will present their cases in the BOG where they have to explain their position.
Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasinzai said that the faculty members will be demoted from their ranks if found guilty.
However, he said their promotions do not have any financial aspect on university as all were university employees.
rahul basharat
