KARACHI: The University of Karachi has delayed its syndicate meeting on Wednesday which was called for the annulment of PhD degree awarded to an alumnus Sulaiman D Muhammad, the acting Vice Chancellor of Federal Urdu University for Arts Science and Technology. Earlier, UoK’s syndicate had decided to cancel the Ph.D degree of Suleman D. Muhammad on April 20 after the varsity’s subcommittee declared plagiarism in the thesis written by him in Urdu language. The subcommittee had also recommended to revoke its PhD but in the same meeting four members, out of sixteen filed dissent notes in the registrar office of the university on the issue the next day. “We have not written in the goodwill of Sulaiman D Muhammad but our dissent notes was about the procedure adopted by the varsity’s subcommittee on plagiarism”, Dr Shoib Haris, senior member of UoK’s syndicate told Daily Times, adding that he is not supporting a person who had acquired a plagiarized degree but some of the varsity’s teachers want to impose the decision of Higher Education Commission (HEC) about the plagiarism case of Sulaiman D Muhammad. He further said that his first priority to save the future of FUUAST and its students because FUUAST is the second largest general university in Karachi where poor students can afford their studies.” I don’t know who is Sulaiman but I only know that the university is an autonomous institution which don’t have the need to do as directed by HEC”. However, after the decision of the subcommittee, Sulaiman D Muhammad had challenged the proceedings in the Sindh High Court and pleaded to issue a stay on the UoK’s syndicate for issuing invalidation nonfiction regarding his PhD degree but SHC rejected petition and directed the UoK to act accordance with the Law on June 14. In this connection, UoK’s administration called a syndicate meeting on Wednesday to notify the cancellation of PhD degree of Sulaiman D Muhammad. Just a day before, the SHC’s single bench comprised by Justice Shafi Siddique had refused to hear the plagiarism case of Sulaiman D Muhammad and put forwarded the case to the senior Judge Justice Muniab Akhtar of SHC. The court constituted a two member bench and issued a stay order regarding the proceeding. Therefore UoK also delayed its syndicate meeting till further breakthrough in case. It is pertinent to mention here that plagiarism has been proved in the theses written by Sulaiman D Muhammad by various forums including HEC, FUUAST, UoK and SHC. Published in Daily Times, July 6th , 2017.