A teacher who raised voice against alleged plagiarism by the Vice Chancellor of University of Peshawar now himself faces hard times , as somewhat controversial internal Fact Finding Inquiry Committee, constituted to probe authenticity of his own LLM degree, has recommended cancelling his degree for alleged violation of set rules and procedures, the sources told this scribe here on Monday.

The Inquiry Committee, criticised by Assistant Professor Muhammad Zubair for its alleged biased approach, deliberated upon the evidences and made recommendation to the University of Peshawar vice chancellor in the recent past to cancel LLM degree of Muhammad Zubair due to various irregularities in pursuance of his degree programme. The committee comprising Yorid Ahsan Zia, deputy controller examination (degrees) of UoP and Professor Dr. Adnan Sarwar Khan, principal of University of Peshawar Law College.

It is pertinent to mention here that Higher Education Commission (HEC) conducted inquiry against University of Peshawar Vice Chancellor Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan on the directives of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor and confirmed his involvement in plagiarism, but the inquiry against Muhammad Zubair has been conducted by internal Fact Finding Committee of the University.

The University of Peshawar VC Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan was accused by Muhammad Zubair, of including in his book titled The Durand Land: Its Geo Strategic Importance , published in 2000 by Area Study Centre, UoP, and Hanns Seidel Foundation, some passages from the book Pak-Afghan Relations , written by Dr. Kulwant Kaur of Jammu University, Jammu, and published by Deep and Deep publications in 1985.

The Fact Finding Committee in its report maintained that the list of thesis submitted to the Controller of Examinations by the Director of Centre for Studies of Law and Democracy (CSLD) director did not carry name of Muhammad Zubair, but the award list of LLM thesis sent by the then principal of the Law College carried his name.

The principal claimed that Muhammad Zubair sent his thesis directly to him, but no record is available about the persons who served as internal and external examiners in case of LLM thesis of session 2003-04. Moreover, all LLM thesis for this session have altogether gone missing quite mysteriously. It also alleged that Assistant Professor Muhammad Zubair of UoP in his LLM thesis copied contents from the book The Myth of Constitutionalism in Pakistan written by Zulfikar Khalid Maluka and published by Oxford University press in 1995. It was alleged that he even selected title of The Myth of Judicial Independence in Pakistan for his thesis quite similar to that of the book.

It said when Muhammad Zubair submitted his thesis to the CSLD Director Mian Ijaz Younis he rejected it on the grounds of plagiarism. Then he submitted the thesis to Professor Dr. Misal Zada who was principal of Law College that got affiliation from Law College of University of Peshawar. He assigned two examiners of his own choice including Dr. Ghulam Mustafa of Political Science Department, University of Peshawar, and without their knowledge made a result sheet and signed it showing as if it had been marked.

The director of CSLD, an affiliated institute of University of Peshawar, raised the issue that LLM degrees must not be awarded to Muhammad Zubair and three other persons because they had not done any thesis that constituted 60 per cent requirement of the LLM degree and asked the university to probe into the matter.

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The then University of Peshawar Vice Chancellor Dr. Muhammad Javed did not take notice of it, and degree was awarded to Muhammad Zubair. The complainant stated that if a person who was at the helm of affairs pressurised any affiliated institute and got LLM degree from it without taking proper admission or examination then what would be authenticity of that degree. The CSLD Director Mian Ijaz Younis has given on judicial stamp paper that whole process of admission of Muhammad Zubair in LLM course and declaration of his result was defective.

When contacted by this scribe, Dr. Adnan Sarwar Khan, principal of University of Peshawar Law College and member of Fact Finding Committee, said two types of inquiries were launched against Muhammad Zubair including irregularities during his LLM programme and violation of disciplinary rules and procedures.

The inquiry report about violation of disciplinary rules would not be made public as the Peshawar High Court has directed the university administration not to do so unless Muhammad Zubair gives his viewpoint in the meeting of syndicate. But we have submitted our report to the Governor Inspection Team about irregularities in his LLM programme, he said.

Talking to this scribe Assistant Professor Muhammad Zubair said he approached HEC on March 10 and Governor House on March 16 this year to raise issue of plagiarism by the University of Peshawar vice chancellor. The university administration got infuriated over it and an inquiry was launched on March 17 and I was suspended on March 20 to mute my voice against illegal act of the University of Peshawar vice chancellor, he said.