Curious case of a professor’s accountability

The sight of an intellectual in chains is painful. Few days ago the social and electronic media went aghast at the visuals of a couple of high profile university professors being chained and taken to court by NAB on corruption charges. It became the top trend on Twitter, the most discussed on Facebook, the most viral on social media and thus the most broken news on TV breaking news. The uproar was so loud and deafening that the Supreme Court took suo motu notice on it and NAB was duly reprimanded for committing this disrespect to the respectable university professors. The sight and sound of people who teach being dragged unceremoniously in courts is really a sorry sight and deems censure; the fact that NAB may have acted exaggeratedly on an enquiry is also reprehensible; however, does being a professor allow legal concessions?

The concept of accountability being across the board is very pertinent. The only way it can become serious is if it does not discriminate the socio-economic status of people. Politicians are public figures and must face accountability and media exposé. The accountability process should not be according to rank or profession. A judge or a soldier or a teacher represents an extremely noble profession. This, however, does not allow you to be treated differently under the rule of law. If anything, professionals who violate the honour of these seats of honour and learning should be held legally and morally accountable for dishonouring the dignity of the profession.

Politicians who are corrupt and have siphoned off billions of taxpayers’ money should never be spared. Similarly, academics who have siphoned off financial and intellectual assets should be punished for a double crime. When a teacher or a university administrator gives financial contracts and academic contracts to people less than the deserving he or she not only abuses taxpayer’s money but sadly also the academic future of the children of the taxpayer.

Take the case of Mujahid Kamran and Chaudhry Akram whose handcuffed picture created a media outpour of sympathy – Mujahid Kamran is accused of misappropriating contracts both for lucrative business allocation and for teachers’ appointments. In 2012 the Academies Staff Association and Punjab University employees demanded the then CM Shahbaz Sharif to investigate the irregularities and financial embezzlements allegedly done by the then Acting VC Professor Dr Mujahid Kamran who was also a candidate for the Vice Chancellor’s slot. They alleged that in his four-year tenure, Kamran had made hundreds of illegal appointments on administrative and lecturers’ posts at Punjab University respectively.

They also alleged that Kamran was involved in corruption worth Rs 1.5 billion and this was also presented in front of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly. Kamran Mujahid was alleged to have awarded a Rs 6 crore university contract to his son for the construction of speed breakers in the University and no audit had been carried out in the project. The purported financial embezzlement was also reported in the Public Accounts Committees but no politician took an action as many of them were beneficiaries of the academic mafias as the relatives of politicians, bureaucrats, landlords and journalists were appointed as lecturers and assistant professors. With all of them part of the ‘crime’, around 300 of the ASU staff who was suspected of sending these reports were punished and removed. Neither the CM nor the Senate Standing Committee nor the PAC did anything but file the report.

The case of the other “honourable teacher, professor and Vice Chancellor” Dr Chaudhry Akram is said to be not unlike a property dealer who acted like a university dealer. He was the VC of Sargodha University but franchised the name of the university to other cities as if he was the owner and shareholder of this public rather than personal property. The University of Sargodha suffered a loss of Rs 1.362 billion due to mismanagement and corruption in establishing private sub-campuses, affiliating private colleges, development projects and making illegal appointments.

The recent case of executive director of Higher Education Commission (HEC),who was found in flagrant plagiarism mode for one of his research papers is just another of the series of senior professor cheating that is now a regular feature of academic embarrassments. Ironically, Executive Director is a powerful position in the HEC because the ED acts as principal accounting officer of the organisation. The plagiarism case against Ali was initiated by HEC’s Plagiarism Standing Committee months ago and in April this year the then HEC chairman wrote to the ministry of federal education that the case had been established against the executive director and finally he resigned.

The amazing reaction by the public on handcuffing these two individuals is easy to understand as what the two Vice Chancellors have done is what the other Universities like BZU etc have already experienced. The state of degradation in the higher education is worse than in lower education. This criminality is not just about a few billions given to a few sons and daughters, this criminality is about ruination of hundreds and thousands of lives of sons and daughters of the people of Pakistan. Imagine the standard of teaching by teachers appointed on sheer connection; imagine the quality of cheating in exams where teachers are really not teachers; imagine the grades being awarded to students by teachers who are themselves deficient in knowledge; imagine the credibility of degrees emanating out of such infected campuses. Imagine the billions wasted in this debt trapped country on faked research, fake teachers and paper degrees that destroy the credibility of the institution and the country.

The question then is that are professors above the law? Yes, the law does gives the law enforcement agencies the leverage to handcuff or not, on arrest, but why should this leverage not be exercised on people who have evaded scrutiny for years due to law enforcers being pressurized by influentials. Why should having a doctoral degree, a teaching post, a University higher seat act as a discount of someone’s digression from the right way? Should it not be the opposite? That those who are responsible for preparing the conduct, performance and character of the future generations should be more severely punished? Should abusers of higher seats of learning who have morally, ethically, financially and intellectually corrupted the very institutions that are supposed to educate people against these vices not be charged with multiple crimes? The answers to these questions will define the character and competence of this nation.