Landmark case of a student claiming dean of department stole his research

[Naveed Yaseen]

Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
A landmark intellectual property rights case has gone to the Islamabad High Court in which an M.Phil student of the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) has accused his dean of faculty and professor of stealing his research paper and getting it published in an internationally-circulated journal in his own name.

Slated to be heard in June, the case in IHC places former chairman of Defence and Strategic Studies, dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and professor of Quaid-i-Azam University, Dr. Zafar Iqbal Cheema, in the dock pitted against his own student, Mirza Masood Akbar, who has accused the professor of stealing his paper, publishing it and denying him access.

The student fears that his research work was in danger of being misplaced or even replaced from university examination record and says his petition has not been heard by the IHC in the last four hearings.

Dr. Cheema has, however, termed the issue as a campaign to malign him by some of his opponents at QAU and claims that the research paper-article published in the summer of 2008 in the journal of the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) was purely his own work and research and thus was published under his name. The professor claims that the student, Mirza Masood Akbar, was incapable of writing ‘even two lines’.

An investigation by ‘The News’, however, reveals facts which have not been explained and involve not only the IRS and its editors, detailed exchanges of e-mails and even a world renowned expert on Pakistan, Steve Cohen, who is based in Washington and who reviewed the research paper before it was published.

According to details, Masood, a student of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, in connection with the course ‘Seminar on Strategic Policies of Great Powers’ offered in M.Phil, second semester, submitted a mandatory required seminar paper titled ‘Indo-Pak Strategic Culture’ to his supervisor Dr. Cheema in June 2008. Dr Cheema awarded ‘A’ grade to Masood and extended co-authorship to Masood on the basis that he, the professor, would help improve the article to have it published internationally, an offer which was accepted by Masood as he had invested three years of research in it.

Documents and evidence available with ‘The News’ show that Dr. Cheema sent the article to IRS in the last week of June last year without any improvement or addition. The e-mail correspondence between Dr. Cheema and IRS clearly shows that the article was basically a research paper of the student that was to be published as a joint publication.

As per HEC recommendations and policy of IRS, review of any such research article by at least two independent referees including one foreigner was mandatory. The foreign-referee, Stephen P Cohen from US, in his peer review sent to IRS on July 12 did not award it full marks but termed the research work of the student as ‘little new contribution’ and recommended it for publication marginally along with suggestions and some corrections.

After Stephen Cohen’s recommendations, Dr. Cheema informed his student Mirza Masood, to improve his work as per Cohen’s suggestions. In one e-mail Dr. Cheema wrote to Masood that he will also like to see it before it was sent to IRS. Masood improved the article as per Cohen’s recommendations and sent it to Dr. Cheema.

However, when the article came out it only had Dr. Cheema’s name as the sole author. According to the evidence, the article was sent to the journal with only minor changes where it was published after addition of an opening paragraph by the editor.

While talking to ‘The News’, Dr. Cheema denied any foul play and termed the whole episode a campaign to defame his good name. He said that Masood as his student had worked on the material provided by him and the article was his own work. Dr. Cheema says Masood had withdrawn from the thesis and had intended to work on another thesis so he had got the article published in his name.

Masood, however, claims that Dr. Cheema is not an expert in the field of strategic culture because his field is nuclear studies. “I had studied the theory of this subject from Dr. Zafar Nawaz Jaspal,” Masood’s petition in the IHC claims.

Besides the documentary evidence and e-mail correspondence between Dr. Cheema, Masood and IRS editor, telephonic conversations between Dr. Cheema and Masood made after publication of the article reveal that Dr. Cheema had told Masood that he was ready to make amends and write to the IRS that the article was in fact a joint publication.

Dr. Cheema is also found telling Masood that he had received a cheque from IRS on January 9 and he is ready to split the amount with him. Masood wanted nothing except his name on the publication.

Masood also moved an application to editorial board of the IRS apprising them of the situation along with all documentary evidence and requesting that the article be re-published in his name to which he received no response. He also applied to his Department at QAU and an Anti-Plagiarism and Fairness Committee was constituted to probe the issue. Dr. Cheema, meantime, moved a petition in the court of Senior Civil Judge, Islamabad, on February 2009 praying to stop proceedings of the committee.

The editor of the IRS journal Abul Barakat, when approached by ‘The News,’ acknowledged the issue but refused to comment on it. However, a senior official of IRS while talking to ‘The News’ confirmed that Dr. Zafar Cheema in his correspondence with him had always mentioned that the article was a research work of his student Masood and that it would be a joint publication.

On February 25, 2009 Masood approached the Islamabad High Court. His petition was first fixed for March 4 but was adjourned. It was again fixed for March 26 when notices were served to Dr. Cheema, the IRS editor and the Quaid-i-Azam University and record from both the IRS and QAU was summoned. Another hearing was scheduled for April 4 but was again adjourned till April 30. Then no date was fixed but it was expected to be heard in June.

Umar Farooq, assistant registrar of IHC, when approached said there is a defined criterion for preparing the cause list and no one can influence this process.

During all this period a new edition of the IRS Journal (Autumn-09) has also been published without any correction and mention of Masood’s name on his article. Even the IRS website shows Dr. Cheema as the author of the article.

Senior lawyer Athar Minallah after going through the case details told ‘The News’ that there cannot be a more despicable crime in a society if a professor is found involved in plagiarism. “Any attempt to cover up or protect the teacher or professor is itself a crime.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=178761