Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has expressed concerns over violations by the International Islamic University (IIU) Islamabad while awarding PhD degrees to its students.

However, the Commission did not provide the details of such irregularities to the university According to a letter, a copy of which has been obtained by Daily Times, the HEC told the university that there were a large number of degrees being issued without fulfilling the legal requirements for the purpose. “It has been observed that a number of PhD degrees have been awarded by your university in violation of the university rules and the policy regarding the maximum duration of a PhD degree”, reads the letter sent to the IIU by the HEC.

The Commission recommended that the university should ensure that no PhD degree was issued in violation of the HEC policy and the university rules as well. “Any PhD degree awarded in violation of the rules after December 31, 2016 will not be considered and the responsibility lies with the university”, the HEC directed.

According to the information available, there are many examples of such violations by the IIU. Dr. Muhammad Arshad Zia got his doctorate in the mathematics from the IIU in 2009 while the fundamental laws declared that the HEC and the varsity itself were ignored. Dr. Zia submitted his thesis just after 11 months of the approval from the BASR while the legal duration for such a purpose is at least 24 months. Furthermore, he also had a shortage of total credit hours, in his doctoral programme.

Another person Dr.Ateequzaffar Khan has been awarded a PhD degree in economics. The duration of completion for his degree was 23 years while the university statuettes declared this time period as a maximum of five years.

Likewise, another official, Dr.Muhammad Sher’s doctoral degree is also flawed. Dr. Sher’s name has also included in the blacklisted PhDs list by the HEC. The IIU administration appointed Dr. Muhammad Amir as the Director QEC while, as per information, his MS research work is completely plagiarised.

The information suggests that Dr.Amir copied his MS thesis from the Impacts of Internet Traffic on the PTCL Local Exchange Carrier Network and Switching Equipment. All these irregularities were also highlighted in the newspapers including Daily Times. Moreover, some IIU officials also dared to take the issues to the notice of the HEC. Chairperson Department of Mathematics, Dr Rahmat Ellahi, is one of such officials.

He wrote letters to the President of the varsity, the Academic Council of the IIU as well as the Director QEC, the HEC Islamabad. In the letters Dr. Ellahi pointed out violations made during the award of the degrees. The IIU is a Saudi based university. While explaining some other causes for not clearly mentioning the awarded PhD degrees against the rules in the letter, an official of the HEC who wished anonymity, alleged that the Commission adopted such diplomatic policy due to the pressure by the Saudi Embassy in Islamabad. “The Commission did want to face any kind of anger by the embassy,” he added. Interestingly, the HEC wrote to the IIU in the letter that “the cases of the degrees which have been awarded after the prescribed duration of PhD be decided through the Syndicate of the university on a case to case basis and the HEC be informed accordingly”.

Another official said that using such words means that the HEC has complete information about the irregularities in the varsity. When the HEC media wing was contacted through email, nobody bothered to reply and brief about the matter despite sending reminders.