THIS is apropos of Dr Ali's letter, 'Plagiarism at university' (Nov 14). Those who introduced the idea of research and PhD as compulsory for university professors, perhaps, didn't realise the fact that research, without plagiarism, is only possible in those institutions where the values of academic honesty, integrity and accountability are strong, but such values are very weak in our higher educational institutions.

Unfortunately, no attempt has been made so far to strengthen those values and everyone seems to be out adopting shortcuts and make a fast buck.

Plagiarism is of two kinds in Pakistan one is committed by students in cutting and pasting material from the Internet for their assignments and the other is resorted to by teachers for writing their research articles and PhD theses.

This kind of plagiarism got a boost after Dr Attaur Rehman, as chairman of the HEC, introduced the conditionality of PhD for promotion of teachers in universities with the aim to raise the standard of education, in the wake of criticism after 9/11 that Pakistani educational standards are weak and institutions are producing students who easily fell prey to the catchy slogans of jihad.

The other objective, though fanciful, was to produce as many as 1,500 PhDs per year in order to put Pakistan in the league of top 500 universities.

Like Dr Ali, teachers from other universities have been writing and drawing the attention of the HEC towards plagiarism. But, unfortunately, the HEC previously brushed aside such criticism by saying that there was no plagiarism.

However, the main reason for plagiarism so far unearthed in different universities is due to intra-teachers rivalry as most of the teachers think that the university administration in order to favour their lackeys get them undue favours by being soft on the matters of plagiarism and promotions.

I myself pointed out this problem, when I was in Shah Abdul Latif University, that the university had become an incubator of plagiarism where local teachers, in collaboration with professors from other universities, indulged in the practice of plagiarism.

For example, one professor from the University of Dr Ali produced four PhDs at one go, as he wanted to get the HEC professorship.

If such theses are sent abroad for checking, as is the condition, these will certainly be rejected.

In some cases, candidates don't even know the title of the thesis, written by someone else. Scores of cut-and- paste PhD theses written even by ghost scholars have been awarded.

Such PhDs have been given preference over senior professors with PhD from one of the prestigious universities of the UK, having written a couple of books and scores of articles published in journals of international repute. This is unfortunate.

However, the HEC has framed some strict rules and evolved software to detect plagiarism. Further, to eliminate plagiarism at its campuses, the University of Punjab dismissed 15 senior academics, including departmental heads, who were involved in this academic crime.

Karachi University purged three offenders.

The HEC chairman should take personal interest in this matter to improve standards in public sector universities. For this he should order anti- plagiarism software for checking all theses written after 2003 and send these for evaluation to foreign universities to restore the credibility of research and PhD degree in Pakistan.

MANZOOR ALI ISRAN

Karachi