Dear Mr. Haqqani
I have read your article in the Daily Jang, Dated June 26, 2009 with great dismay. The article is supposedly based on a report alleging that LUMS has admitted some students to its academic programmes by exempting them from its admission test and without placing admission ads in newspapers. We have not come across this report but it is possible that you have based your article on a misreading of a report by Mr. Rauf Klasra that appeared in the June 24, 2009 issue of "The News" http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=184552 If the latter, I would advise you to please read the full article carefully to see that at no point has the author suggested that LUMS is at fault in the conduct of the test which it administered on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce. If your article is based on some other report, which we have not come across, then journalistic ethics and professionalism demanded that the content of the report should have been verified with the University administration before basing a full-length defamatory article on a baseless and unsubstantiated report.
LUMS has always based its admissions on merit; admission dates and deadlines are advertised in newspapers and the information is placed on our website; in most programmes candidates are required to take LUMS admissions tests or their equivalent tests such as GMAT, SAT, GRE etc. There are no exceptions, and no holy cows. LUMS has not earned its reputation overnight; it has taken many years of unswerving commitment to merit and excellence to build a reputation which your article also recognizes. The University has over these years built a culture that jealously protects and safeguards these norms and values, and any attempt by any individual to compromise on these norms would be at the risk of being disgraced and discredited with no future at LUMS. We would have expected that you would have recognized this core institutional strength of LUMS, and would have thoroughly verified the report before casting aspersions on an institution which is a national icon.
Your article has hurt the entire LUMS community "“ its students, alumni, faculty and staff. It has also misled prospective students and employees who would be considering joining LUMS in the future. You owe it to all of them, and it is also your professional responsibility to retract the defamatory article of June 26 in the Daily Jang and display this retraction prominently in the newspaper of which you are the senior editor.
Sincerely,
Anjum Nasim
Provost and
Acting Vice Chancellor