KARACHI: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Tuesday sought details from the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast) about alleged irregularities committed in BA and BCom results over the past three years.

Speaking to Dawn, HEC chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said that he had learnt about the fake degree scam at the Urdu university through the media and had asked officials concerned to provide the commission with a detailed report on this.

“It’s a serious matter and must not be ignored. The commission will look into the matter and see the report prepared by the university on this issue,” he said.

He regretted that the university upgraded from a college had to face a crisis one after another and expressed the hope that the situation would improve once the institution had a regular vice chancellor in place through university’s selection procedures.

“The HEC technically doesn’t interfere in matters at the university level as every educational institution has its own statutory bodies under which they function,” he explained.

It is worth noting that a number of serious irregularities have been identified in a report prepared by a committee given the task by the university administration to uncover allegations of malpractices in private BA and BCom exams (for both, part one and part two) held in 2014. The exam results were announced this year.

According to the report, 85 candidates were given fake degrees. These candidates, it says, were neither enrolled at the department nor appeared in the examination while 100 students, who failed in the exams, were declared pass.

A total of 917 students out of 1,013 registered students appeared in examinations. More than 260 students were declared pass while 648 declared fail.

“The actual number of absentee students was 96 but showed 11 in a register. There were also major discrepancies in the number of pass students,” the report says.

The committee set up by the incumbent acting vice chancellor comprised in-charge of computer science department Mohammad Siddique, assistant Prof Mohammed Saleem, Assistant Prof Iqrar Ali Qureshi, mathematics department in-charge Sohail Anjum and Zia-ur-Rehman of the statistics department.

“This is the first episode and more startling reports about the past malpractices on the campus would follow,” said acting vice chancellor of Urdu university Prof Suleman D. Mohammad.

Replying to a question about complaints pertaining to the credibility of his academic credentials that are being heard by the Sindh High Court, he said: “I was cleared of all these charges by the university. Besides, the court is not the right forum to raise such issues as the university has a plagiarism committee to attend such complaints.”

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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