COMSATS pro-rector flees to US

Board to decide his fate today; Haroon Rashid’s PhD degree was withdrawn

by Preston University over 72pc plagiarism

ISLAMABAD: Pro-Rector of COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) Haroon Rashid, who is facing removal from the post as the institute’s board is meeting today (Saturday) to decide his fate, has fled to the US on Friday.

His children are settled in the US and he along with his wife went to America on the eve of Board's decision against him. Sources close to the pro-rector claimed that he went to America on a visit scheduled far earlier and would return to the country after some time. 

Haroon’s PhD degree was withdrawn by the Preston University on Monday over up to 72% plagiarism in his doctoral thesis. 

Sources said after losing his PhD, Haroon, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of National Testing Service (NTS), was no more qualified to hold the second most important post in one of the largest higher education institutes in the country.  

Rector CIIT SM Junaid Zaidi confirmed to The News that a non-PhD cannot hold the post of pro-Rector in the institute. 

Under the Higher Education Commission (HEC) anti-plagiarism policy, any person involved in major theft of ideas before 2007 will not only withdraw his relevant degree, but also lose any post he is holding by virtue of that degree. 

“The board will take the decision according to relevant rules and regulations. The agenda of the meeting is to discuss the situation arising after the decision of the Preston University regarding Pro-Rector’s Phd degree,” Dr Junaid Zaid told The News.

He said decision regarding the future of Haroon Rashid will be taken by the board collectively. The meeting is expected to be attended by the Chairman HEC Dr Mukhtar Ahmad or his nominee.

Chairman HEC told The News that the commission had acted under its anti-plagiarism policy. 

“The HEC played its role by writing to the CIIT earlier about the finding of Quality Assurance Division regarding the PhD thesis of its pro-Rector,” he said.

He said the HEC’s anti-plagiarism policy regarding pre-2007 cases stipulates three actions.

First, the person found involved in plagiarism should withdraw his degree in question. Second, he should submit a written affidavit stating that the practice would never be repeated and third he would stop getting any benefit relative to that degree. In Haroon Rashid’s case the “benefit” related to his now cancelled PhD degree is the job of Pro-Rector at CIIT. 

Under the HEC’s policy Haroon Rashid would have to be removed from the post as the job requires a PhD qualification.  The HEC had initiated probe against Rashid last year. The commission wrote letter a to CIIT Rector Dr Zaidi in September 2015 to probe the plagiarism case as per policy within 90 days and share the outcome with the commission.

According to HEC letter thesis submitted by Haroon for his PhD degree in Computer Sciences in 2006 was up to 72 per cent plagiarized. The thesis, titled ‘Parallel Scientific Applications Scheduling on Distributed Computing System’, was submitted to Preston University in 2006.   The HEC Quality Assurance (QA) Division used plagiarism detection software ‘Turnitin’ in initial probe.

Haroon Rashid is of the view that the HEC's anti-plagiarism policy of 2007 was not applicable to him as his PhD thesis was submitted in 2006. He also raised doubts about the performance of HEC's software.