Karachi: The surprising revelation of academic irregularities in IBA Karachi came to light when 7 joint papers of two professors were published in an international journal, but the administration issued a warning letter to the professor who brought the matter to light.
The matter started with the publication of 7 joint articles by two professors in the same volume of the research journal, on which the IBA administration has made every effort not only to suppress the matter but also to raise the issue of academic misconduct. The professor who brought it forward has become the target of the administration.
When the professor highlighted the matter through social media, the administration declared the professor guilty of the IBA Code of Business Conduct and issued a warning letter demanding an apology.
One of the two professors allegedly involved in this irregularity is Dr. Asad Ilyas, the current registrar of IBA. When Dr. Asad Ilyas and Dr. Nasir Afghan jointly published 7 research papers on the same topic in the research journal of IBA published in the name of business review.
Some people also claim that the published research papers were actually those of the respective students of IBA which were published in the name of the two mentioned teachers, however with the publication and distribution of this research journal as soon as the IBA community. The echo of this irregularity was heard.
Academic sources confirm that Dr. Ishrat Hussain, taking immediate notice of the matter, removed all copies of the volume from the IBA offices and the management took it into custody while the volume was also taken offline. .
It was later replaced by the second volume of this number, but a few copies remained in the offices of some teachers, which later became vital to the current registrar of the IBA as evidence of this irregularity.
The evidence available to “Express” in this regard shows that the former director of IBA, Dr. Ishrat Hussain, who spent the last year of his tenure when the matter came to light, formed a three-member investigation committee in this regard, which was made up of those responsible for the matter. It was to be determined, but it is noteworthy that Dr. Ishrat Hussain resigned from his post a few days after the formation of the committee and later this matter was not only suppressed, but the investigation report of this matter is also not in the public domain till date. Brought.
When “Express” contacted Dr. Qazi Masood, a member of the committee in this regard and tried to know from him what was the finding of the investigation, he confirmed the matter and said that its findings were very clear. As per the rules of HE, one journal could not have more than two articles, so we recommended to Ishrat Sahib to withdraw it, after which he withdrew it and said that since it is HE C are not under the rules, so the papers will not be accepted, these papers will not be counted in the development of both.
The member of the committee said that he added that I think that is the reason why both the faculties could not be promoted which is a big loss. He further said that Ishrat Sahib is a worldly man, he said to withdraw this volume.
It should be noted that evidence suggests that shortly after the 2015 academic misconduct incident, the then editor of the IBA Business Review, Dr. Tufail Qureshi, was removed from his post.
Meanwhile, after 6 years, Dr. Mohsin Butt, a professor of IBA, raised this issue on the social media platform LinkedIn. On his behalf, some evidence was presented on this platform, but he severely criticized the two professors, Dr. Asad Ilyas and Dr. Nasir Afghan, who published 7 articles simultaneously in the same volume. In many of his social media posts, he described the matter as an academic fraud.
After the post on social media, a formal complaint was given by the two professors to the IBA administration and it was said that Dr. Mohsin Butt is defaming them by using social media as a weapon, after which the current head of IBA, Dr. A 5-member grievance committee was formed on behalf of Akbar Zaidi in March this year, which started investigating the matter, and the situation became interesting when the current administration started investigating the complaint against Dr. Mohsin Butt, but only investigated the actual issue. Looked.
In this regard, “Express” also contacted the current head of IBA, Dr. Akbar Zaidi, and tried to find out why the matter is being suppressed and the committee formed by Dr. Ishrat Hussain on the reported matter. Where is the investigation report, but no response was received from them.
On the other hand, a member of the grievance committee established by Dr. Akbar Zaidi, on the condition of not revealing his name, said that “the investigating committee came against Dr. Mohsin Butt, who raised the issue of 7 research papers published in the names of 2 professors. Some senior BA professors were asked about the matter in confidence and one of the senior faculty confirmed that the journal was withdrawn from all faculties shortly after its publication. It was because the teachers objected to some authors.
He said that for this reason the editor of the journal was also dismissed, but no further action was taken in this regard by the IBA management.
On the other hand, IBA’s HR sources say that the current management of IBA has issued a warning letter on June 6 after an inquiry to Professor Mohsin Butt, who publicized the matter through social media, in which he In a single volume of the journal, Dr. Asad Ilyas and Dr. Nasir Afghan, authors of 7 papers, were recommended to issue conditional apologies through LinkedIn, saying that they had damaged the reputation of the two men and the reputation of the IBA. .
It is being told that IBA has also formulated a social media policy on the recommendation of the said committee, in which it is recommended to impose strict conditions regarding the use of social media on faculty, staff and students.
Also, when IBA contacted Dr. Asad Ilyas and Dr. Nasir Afghan, the authors of 7 research papers in the same volume accused of academic fraud by Dr. Mohsin Butt, both of them refused to give their position. Kar denied that he is not authorized to speak to the media, while after Dr. Asad Ilyas refused to give a statement, it was pointed out that the comments on the official website of the university can be seen in this regard.
Further, to find out the position of the IBA administration, Maryam Tawheed, the acting head of the MARCOM department, was contacted, on which this position came out on her behalf, in which the university confirmed that after the investigation. Disciplinary action has been taken against the faculty member who brought the matter to light as the allegations leveled by him have been found to be baseless.
It has been stated in the statement that the articles questioned in the research publication do not exist and therefore the allegations are contrary to the ground facts. available.
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