ISLAMABAD: The new management of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) is reluctant to take any concrete action against HEC Executive Director Dr Arshad Ali who has been alleged for plagiarism in his research papers. According to the available information, in December last year, Dr Arshad Ali was alleged for sealing 88 percent research work of his co-authored research paper from another publication. The paper titled A Taxonomy & Survey of Grid Resource Planning & Reservation Systems for Grid Enabled Analysis Environment published in July 2004, was found with heavy plagiarism when it had been tested in Turnitin, a software which has been officially provided by HEC to universities to check the similarity index and plagiarism in the degrees as well as research papers of the scholars. According to the Turnitin report, the accused copied most parts in his paper from a paper titled Survey & Taxonomy of Grid Resource Management Systems” authored by Chaitanya Kandagatla of University of Texas in February 2004. After the report, former HEC chairperson Dr Mukhtar Ahmed formed a committee to probe into the matter which, according to the highly informed official privy to the whole investigation, also gave its findings declaring Dr Ali as guilty. The findings were sent to the prime minster who is the controlling authority of the commission. The official said that the reason for sending findings to the PM instead of taking action as per prescribed rules in this regards, was owing to an incomplete commission/board. To take such kind of decision is the domain of that commission. As per HEC Act 2002, the executive director is the second most important post of the commission being the principal accounting officer of the body that manages around Rs 100 billion annual budget. He/she acts as head of HEC Secretariat and also as the secretary of the commission’s governing body which makes policies on improving quality of education and fighting plagiarism. After the surprising report, it put the many questions on the credibility of the HEC which is responsible to monitor official affairs of over 180 public sector universities across the country apart from private universities. Despite passage of over eight months, the matter is still under the carpet. Academic circles linked hopes with HEC Chairman Dr Tariq Banuri who assumed office in May for taking some sort of action against the executive director to set precedent so that at least such senior officials of the commission would not dare to involve themselves in such academic corruption. However, chairman Dr Tariq Banuri again reassigned the matter to the newly formed 10-member commission. An official in the HEC termed the move no more than delaying tactics. As per HEC policy, if most of the paper has been exactly copied from any published work of other people without giving the reference to the original work, a major penalty of dismissal from service could be imposed. The policy also mentions that such a plagiarist may be black listed and may not be eligible for employment in any academic/research organisation and (c) the notification of Black Listing of the author(s) may be published in print media or publicised on different websites at the discretion of the vice chancellor/rector/head of the organisation. The HEC Plagiarism Policy also mentions, “Any person listing his CV on the website or any current publication or applying for any benefit on the basis of published or presented work that is plagiarised will be liable to be punished as per prescribed rules.” The HEC website defines a plagiarist as the “one who steals the thoughts or writings of others and gives them out as his own”. It also bans self-plagiarism and verbatim copying portions of another author’s paper or from reports by citing but not clearly differentiating what text has been copied. Dr Ali was appointed as HEC executive director in January 2016. Only after December, the official disclosed, the ED availed four foreign official visits of different countries and got more than $15,000 in return. Not only this, he is also using three official vehicles apart from millions of salaries he withdrew after he was alleged for academic corruption. Talking exclusively to Daily Times, Dr Tariq Banuri said that he has assigned the new commission to re-investigate the matter impartially. “The due action would be taken in accordance with the commission findings,” he vowed adding that as yet he does not know the facts and to take action merely on assumptions and allegations is not possible. Published in Daily Times, September 26th 2018.