ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel has directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to conduct an academic audit of the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST) and the University of Karachi and submit a compliance report to the committee.

The panel on Thursday also called the vice chancellors of both universities to attend the committee`s next meeting in Karachi.

The HEC chairman told Dawn separately that President Mamnoon Hussain has also directed him to conduct academic audits of all universities.

`Since we have to submit our report before the standing committee [as soon as possible] we are going to start the FAAUST and Karachi University audits and will then move towards the others,` Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training met at the HEC to discuss various agenda items related to universities. The state minister for federal education and professional training, Balighur Rehman, also attended the meeting, which was chaired by Dr Amirullah Marwat.

The committee took note of Karachi University`s failure to cancel a PhD degree awarded to the vice chancellorof FUUAST that has been declared fake by the HEC due to plagiarism.

Committee members said the vice chancellor of Karachi University has been silent on the degree.

Several universities, under the cover of litigation, have acted as shelters for proven plagiarists and have not acted against them. The International Islamic University Islamabad has also failed to comply with the HEC`s directives in this regard.

When Dr Ahmed told the committee that universities were not following the commission`s directives despite reminders, committee members expressed concern over the lack of compliance with quality assurance criterion, as well as the lack of timely vice chancellor appointments.

The committee also discussed a calling attention notice moved in Parliament House about the stopping of salaries of more than 60 employees of the Federal Urdu University Islamabad, and directed the university to release the salaries with immediate effect.

The Prevention of Malpractices in Academia Bill 2016, moved by MNA Shakila Lugman, was also discussed, and the HEC has been told to draft a bill that incorporates points on which a consensus was reached at last month`s public hearing on the bill.

Ms Lugman recently told Dawn that academic research is largely unregulated because the HEC does not have the legal might to assert itself to achieveand regulate academic excellence.

The committee also discussed the Sir Syed (Centre for Advance Studies in Engineering)Institute of Technology Bill and deferred the matter after hearing the Capital Development Authority`s (CDA) perspective until prerequisites, needed for the awarding institute and no-objection certificate by the HEC, are fulfilled.

The CDA`s member planning and design, Asad Mehboob Kayani, told the committee that the Sir Syed instituteis beingrun out ofa building on a plot originally meant for the construction of an auditorium, library, reading room and museum, and not an educational institution.

He said the CDA is planning to seal the premises for non-conforming use, to which the committee directed the member to avoid vacating the centre until the ongoing semester is completed.

Speaking to Dawn, the dean of academics at the Centre for Advance Studies in Engineering, Khawaja Shafaat Ahmed Bazaz said will apply for a charter from the HEC again according to the committee`s directives.

`We have started completing the formalities to get a charter/NOC from the HEC. If the CDA has any issue with the [plot allottee] Sir Syed Memorial Society we have nothing to do with it.

It`s a matter of two parties we are legitimate tenants and we will move out at the appropriate time,` he said.