The pseudonymous sleuth Dayo Maor brought a story about an engineering faculty at a major university in Pakistan. It seems, they all are science cheaters there, starting with all the past deans.

The problem however does not stay in Pakistan. These “scientists” come to European and North American universities, as PhD students, postdocs, and as visiting and even associate professors, and they are most welcome there exactly because their publication output is so impressive.

The case of Muhammad Bilal is particularly crass. He made it to professor in Poland, and I personally don’t believe the big Polish professors and university rectors who hosted him and put their names on his papermill fabrications didn’t know where these papers were coming from.

Their problem started when everyone else got to know where these papers came from, which caused these Polish professors and rectors so much embarrassment they kicked Bilal out. He is now a humble postdoc at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, his hosts there also seem to hope for a windfall of papers with their names on them. Well, good luck.

And now, to Islamabad!

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The Three Wise Deans of Islamabad

By Dayo Maor and LS

It is not a secret that every PhD or postdoc position opened in Europe is stormed by applicants from Pakistan, often counting for about 1/3 of total number. These hundreds of applicants often present CVs with many papers and high citation scores. Senior scientists from Pakistan are also rather eager to use their experience and get some jobs abroad. There is one problem though. The state of science in Pakistan is close to complete catastrophe with whole departments engaged in massive fraud.  

Here is the story about one of those institutions where nearly all senior staff members including professors, associate professors and at least 3 former Deans  are exposed on PubPeer with extensive evidence of fraud in multiple papers. Welcome to School of Chemical & Materials Engineering (SCME), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) in Islamabad!

We start with a paper from NUST from 2020, published in a Springer Nature journal. It presents a very obvious example of hand-edited XRD: 

Arooj Ahmed , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi, Zaib Jahan , Ghufrana Samin , Erum Pervaiz , Arshad Hussain , Muhammad Taqi Mehran Enhancing the Thermal, Mechanical and Swelling Properties of PVA/Starch Nanocomposite Membranes Incorporating g-C3N4 Journal of Polymers and the Environment (2020) doi: 10.1007/s10924-019-01592-y 

The author list of this paper (cited by now 72 times) includes 3 (!) former Deans of School of Chemical & Materials Engineering, the corresponding author is Prof. Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi who served as a Dean in 2018-2021 after taking over Prof. Arshad Hussain (2011-2018) and left his chair to Prof. Erum Pervaiz (2021-2024). On PubPeer, Niazi invited his critics to contact him by email and dismissed all concerns by claiming that such “observations are consistent with previously reported findings in the literature.” Well, yes indeed, we also find this fake stuff in other papermill fabrications.

No wonder that first author Arooj Ahmed earned herself in 2023 a PhD student position at the University Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany, she had no trouble beating the competition with this and another paper with her NUST mentors:

Arooj Ahmed , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi, Zaib Jahan , Tahir Ahmad , Arshad Hussain , Erum Pervaiz , Hussnain Ahmed Janjua , Zakir Hussain In-vitro and in-vivo study of superabsorbent PVA/Starch/g-C3N4/Ag@TiO2 NPs hydrogel membranes for wound dressing European Polymer Journal (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2020.109650 

Quite possibly those copy-pasted spectra were originally hand-drawn.

The NUST professor Arshad Hussain is now Dean of the Institute of Applied Sciences & Technology at “Pakistan-Austria Fachhochschule” (PAF-IAST), a joint project in Pakistan by Austrian higher education schools MCI in Innsbruck and FH Joanneum in Graz, plus 5 Chinese universities. A. Hussain obtained his Master degree at the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, and his PhD from the University of Magdeburg, also in Germany. He has a few papers on PubPeer, some with the known papermiller Awais Bokhari. There were times when A. Hussain didn’t care which topic he publishes or whether it has anything to do with he alleged “expertise” in chemical engineering. Ayurveda, no problem:

• Mohd Mujahid, Talib Hussain , Hefazat Hussain Siddiqui , Arshad Hussain Evaluation of hepatoprotective potential of Erythrina indica leaves against antitubercular drugs induced hepatotoxicity in experimental rats Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine (2017) doi: 10.1016/j.jaim.2016.10.005 
• Mohd. Mujahid, Hefazat H. Siddiqui , Arshad Hussain , Md. Sarfaraj Hussain Hepatoprotective effects of Adenanthera pavonina (Linn.) against anti-tubercular drugs-induced hepatotoxicity in rats Pharmacognosy Journal (2013) doi: 10.1016/j.phcgj.2013.08.003 

Back to Niazi, who shines with at least 25 papers on PubPeer. Like his predecessor Hussain, the NUST Dean Niazi got his PhD in Europe (University of Groningen, Netherlands) and continued as a postdoc at NTNU in Norway. First examples of relatively modest image duplications appear already at this stage of his career and include Norwegian co-authors:

Zaib Jahan , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi , May-Britt Hägg , Øyvind Weiby Gregersen Decoupling the effect of membrane thickness and CNC concentration in PVA based nanocomposite membranes for CO2/CH4 separation Separation and Purification Technology (2018) doi: 10.1016/j.seppur.2018.04.076 

But it was his drive to build a great academic career after his return to NUST which revealed some of Niazi’s true talents. Below is example from his 2021 paper published with the international papermill star and scamference organiser of Pakistani origin, Farooq Sher. Read about him here:

This professor of Nottingham Trent University once reported me (Leonid Schneider) to the German police for malicious slander (he failed, see September 2025 Shorts).

Misbah Iqbal , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi, Zaib Jahan , Tahir Ahmad , Zakir Hussain , Farooq Sher Fabrication and characterization of carbon-based nanocomposite membranes for packaging application Polymer Bulletin (2022) doi: 10.1007/s00289-021-03763-1 

Niazi’s retort on PubPeer was merely: “The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [Dr. M.B.K. Niazi at Email: m.b.k.niazi@scme.nust.edu.pk] upon reasonable request by editors or individuals.” It seems he really wants to find out who exposes his fraud, so he can take measures against this person.

Yet Niazi’s PubPeer record was not created by one single sleuth, but by many of them posting various fake papers over the period of last 3 years. Like this article by Niazi and Sher, flagged by Sylvain Bernès and François-Xavier Coudert, with the same XRD patterns in 3 copies, each for three different materials. The penultimate author is SCME’s associate professor Tayyaba Noor (29 papers on PubPeer, see also CODA below):

Farrukh Altaf , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi, Zaib Jahan , Tahir Ahmad , Muhammad Aftab Akram , Amna Safdar , Muhammad Shoaib Butt , Tayyaba Noor, Farooq Sher Synthesis and Characterization of PVA/Starch Hydrogel Membranes Incorporating Essential Oils Aimed to be Used in Wound Dressing Applications Journal of Polymers and the Environment (2021) doi: 10.1007/s10924-020-01866-w 

This paper includes also two other Associate Professors from the same institution: Amna Safdar (also see her paper Ullah et al 2025, with nonsense references to the russian papermillers Maxim Zdorevets and Trukhanov brothers), and Muhammad Shoaib Butt, please appreciate his butt-drawn spectra further down this article.

Another paper, again by Niazi, Noor, Sher and Sher’s wife Emina Karahmet Sher, provides an even better example of creative approach to XRD, with two patterns showing identical noise only for some part and very different in other region. It was flagged on PubPeer already in 2022, Sylvain Bernès asked Sher for raw data only to be ignored:

Saleem Ahmad, Zaib Jahan, Farooq Sher , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi, Tayyaba Noor, Honghao Hou, Ofaira Azhar, Emina Karahmet Sher Polyvinyl alcohol and aminated cellulose nanocrystal membranes with improved interfacial compatibility for environmental applications Environmental Research (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113793 

No correction or retraction was published of course. Here another paper by Sher with the two NUST deans, Niazi and Pervaiz:

Uzair Saeed , Zaib Jahan, Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi , Erum Pervaiz , Farooq Sher Biogas upgrading with novel cellulose nano-crystals and polyvinyl amine nanocomposite membranes Polymer Testing (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.polymertesting.2020.106867 

There is only one retraction for Niazi so far:

Naheed Zafar , Bushra Uzair , Farid Menaa , Barkat Ali Khan , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi , Fatima S. Alaryani , Kamlah Ali Majrashi , Shamaila Sajjad Moringa concanensis-Mediated Synthesis and Characterizations of Ciprofloxacin Encapsulated into Ag/TiO/FeO/CS Nanocomposite: A Therapeutic Solution against Multidrug Resistant Strains of Livestock Infectious Diseases Pharmaceutics (2022)doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics14081719  

The images were obviously stolen, and even MDPI had to do something. The November 2025 Retraction went:

“Following publication, concerns were brought to the attention of the Editorial Office regarding the integrity of Figure 12 in this publication [1].

Adhering to our standard procedure, an investigation was conducted by the Editorial Office and Editorial Board that identified a duplication between sub-figures 12c and 12b presented in this article [1] and earlier publications [2,3] produced by a different research group and presenting different experimental conditions. While the authors collaborated within this process, raw material meeting the journal’s requirements for original images […] could not be provided for Editorial Board evaluation. […]

The authors did not agree to this retraction.”

The author list of this retraction includes a certain Frenchman called Farid Menaa, who (falsely) claimed to be professor at University of California San Diego, he also claims to have founded various biotech companies, where one also wonders if they ever existed. What is clear, is that Menaa is editorial board member of multiple journals and author of 74 papers, 16 of those at PubPeer. One of them, Sateem et al 2022, featured in this article:

Using the strength of his CV, Prof. Niazi took a leave and took up a much better paid job in Saudi Arabia: he is now associate professor at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals. Also his successor Erum Pervaiz is now abroad. Pervaiz is the first Dean of SCME without a PhD degree from Europe, but now she went there – since September 2024 her affiliation is the Ghent University in Belgium, as researcher of green hydrogen in the lab of professor Kevin Van Geem:

Pervaiz’s qualifications include a PubPeer record of currently 14 papers, some you already saw, and here is another masterpiece, with Noor: 

Muhammad Mudassar Aslam , Tayyaba Noor , Erum Pervaiz , Naseem Iqbal , Neelam Zaman Synthesis of Mn loaded FeCo-MOF and its composites with reduced graphene oxide as highly efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution and reduction reactions in metal-air batteries International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.05.228 

Another disturbing example from Pervaiz’s CV, featuring NUST professor Nasir Mahmood Ahmad (4 papers on PubPeer), and aptly titled “Fabrication”:

Sidra Liaquat , Sarah Farrukh , Nasir Ahmad , Syed Shujaat Karim , Erum Pervaiz , Ayesha Sultan , Subhan Ali Fabrication of Fe₃O₄ based cellulose acetate mixed matrix membranes for As(iii) removal from wastewater Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology (2024) doi: 10.1039/d4ew00080c

Speaking of Nasir Ahmad – he also had that MDPI paper with Michigan State University’s associate professor Caroline Szczepanski (Ur Rehman et al 2023), which was flagged by M. Ángeles Oviedo-García for coercive citations and fraudulent peer review.

Any sleuth in the audience willing to check other papers by Nasir Ahmad?

At SCME, almost every senior scientist listed in the faculty directory has some PubPeer record, with or without earlier Deans as co-authors. Starting from the top and following the directory line by line:

Associate professor Iftikhar Ahmad has 12 papers on PubPeer, but beware of namesakes! This is clearly his though:

Muhammad Adnan, Muhammad Usman , Muhammad Aftab Akram, Sofia Javed , Saqib Ali , Iftikhar Ahmad , Mohammad Islam Study of magnetic and dielectric properties of ZnFe2O4/CoCr2O4 nanocomposites produced using sol-gel and hydrothermal processes Journal of Alloys and Compounds (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.158953 

Associate professor Usman Liaqat and the next researcher in the directory, associate professor Sofia Javed (who has 10 papers on PubPeer), authored this: 

Zeeshan Mehmood Khan , Muhammad Aftab Akram , Muhammad Abdul Basit , Mohammad Mujahid , Sofia Javed Boosted Hydrogen evolution reaction based on synergistic effect of graphene, MoS2 and RuO2 ternary electrocatalyst International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.10.312 

This forgery was exposed by the most famous sleuth of all times – Elisabeth Bik – with multiple publications of the same figures and image duplications:

Sadaf Batool , Usman Liaqat , Zakir Hussain Preparation and physicochemical characterization of whitlockite/PVA/Gelatin composite for bone tissue regeneration Frontiers in Chemistry (2024) doi: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1355545 

Which brings us to Professor Zakir Hussain, whom you already met twice above. He may be related to the former SCME Dean Arshad Hussain, because also Zakir did his PhD in Germany (TU Braunschweig). Like his presumed brother, also Zakir Hussain published fake science, with currently 14 papers on PubPeer.

As it happens, the above mentioned student of Hussain’s, Sadaf Batool, is presently visiting researcher at the same University of Erlangen-Nürnberg where Arshad Hussian did his PhD. The German university website informs us about Batool’s supervisors: Zakir Hussain in Pakistan, and in Erlangen it is Professor Aldo Boccaccini. Well, here is the result, quality Made in Germany:

Sadaf Batool, Muhammad Asim Akhtar , Zakir Hussain, Aldo R. Boccaccini Electrophoretic deposition of tea tree oil containing chitosan/gelatin/whitlockite composite coatings for biofilm protection and bone tissue regeneration Ceramics International (2024) doi: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2024.03.342 

But lets take this one as another example of Hussain’s achievements, a paper featuring current and future (at the time of publication) Deans of SCME, Niazi and Parvaiz:

Arooj Ahmed , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi, Zaib Jahan , Tahir Ahmad , Arshad Hussain , Erum Pervaiz , Hussnain Ahmed Janjua , Zakir Hussain In-vitro and in-vivo study of superabsorbent PVA/Starch/g-C3N4/Ag@TiO2 NPs hydrogel membranes for wound dressing European Polymer Journal (2020) doi: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2020.109650 

Returning to proper order, Professor Iftikhar Hussain Gul is fourth on the faculty list, and we selected this example from his 7 papers PubPeer record: 

Ayla Sajid , Javearia Tariq , Faiq Ahmad , Mutawara Mahmood Baig , Iftikhar Hussain Gul , Uzma Habib Nanostructured Fe-substituted NiCo2O4@NiMnCo-LDH ternary composite as an electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors Journal of Materials Science (2023) doi: 10.1007/s10853-023-08336-3 

Professor Khurram Yaqoob has 4 papers on PubPeer, including Waani et al 2021 with his SCME colleague Noor, the current SCME dean Umair Manzoor, and a celebrity fraudster, the papermiller Shafaqat Ali. Here some cloned spectra:

Ayesha Siddique , Talha Abid , M. Aftab Akram , Talha Bin Yaqub , M. Ramzan Abdul Karim , Filipe Fernandes , Rizwan Khan , Khurram Yaqoob Design and development of NbTiVZr porous high entropy alloys for energy applications Journal of Energy Storage (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.est.2023.109131 

Professor Asad Ullah Khan was caught by being part of editor-reviewing ring of Pau Loke Show and Jörg Rinklebe, coauthors here are two key gang members, Muhammad Mubashir and Awais Bokhari:

Bazla Sarwar , Asad Ullah Khan, Muhammad Aslam , Awais Bokhari , Muhammad Mubashir , Asma A. Alothman , Mohamed Ouladsmane , Samar A. Aldossari , Wai Siong Chai , Kuan Shiong Khoo Comparative study of ZIF-8-materials for removal of hazardous compounds using physio-chemical remediation techniques Environmental Research (2023) doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.115168 

This was now punished with a retraction, future-dated to March 2026:

“Unauthorised authorship changes were made when the revised version of this paper was submitted, with authors Asma A. Alothman, Mohamed Ouladsmane and Samar A. Aldossari being added to the paper. […]

Additionally, acceptance of the article was partly based upon the positive advice of reviewers who are closely linked to two of the authors (Awais Bokhari, Kuan Shiong Khoo).”

Moving on to the next on the faculty list, Professor Farhan Javaid, with the aforementioned Butt and Gul: 

Iqra Nazir , Farhan Javaid , Mutawara Mahmood Baig , Muhammad Shoaib Butt , Iftikhar Hussain Gul Influence of Zinc Substitution on the Structural, Dielectric, and Gas-Sensing Properties of Mg_1–xZn_xFe₂O₄ Nanoparticles ACS Omega (2023) doi: 10.1021/acsomega.3c03781 

Khan et al 2023, the last author being Awais Bokhari, proves that Javaid (and Niazi) are connected to that peer-review mafia of PL Show.

Finally we arrived to the first name not yet on PubPeer and that is Muhammad Nouman Aslam Khan, we hope the good man will improve his performance before the next academic evaluation. Next in the list is associate professor Malik Adeel Umer, who shares this piece with above mentioned Professor Gul and the above mentioned assistant professor at SCME, Mutawara Mahmood Baig:

Umer has currently just one more paper on PubPeer: Karim et al 2023 with PL Show, Munabshir, KS Khoo and Bokhari. Says it all.

I leave to readers to continue the list. Here is something by associate professor Mohsin Saleem, plus Butt and associate professor Muhammad Nouman Ahsan Khan:

Faiza Khalid , Mohsin Saleem , Hamid Jabbar , Muhammad Gulraiz Tanvir , Muhammad Shoaib Butt , Abrar H. Baluch , Abdul Ghaffar , Muhammad Ahsan , Rizwan Ahmed Malik , Umit Alver , Hussein Alrobei , Zab Dur Rehman , Meshal Alzaid , Muhammad Zubair Khan Improved super capacitive performance of hydrothermally developed Mn and Ni oxides along with activated carbon as ternary nanocomposite Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.jpcs.2021.110467 

The fact is that almost all professors and associate profesors of this institute are exposed at PubPeer, and this happened not due to some systematic study of this place, but due to random discoveries by many independent sleuths. There is a good chance that a few names do not yet feature on PubPeer simply for the lack of attention. At least 18 names of School of Chemical & Materials Engineering senior staff members are mentioned in this article and we did not even try to go down to the bottom of the directory, where assistant professors are listed. 

Most of the papers commented on PubPeer are 5-7 years old.  It is obvious that dozens of junior researchers were involved in these publications.  Many of them are actively searching positions in other countries and some of them possibly already found it.  

There is little chance that something will change in this institution, as NUST does not seem to care about the PubPeer records of their professors. Many of these comments appeared already 2-3 years ago, and did not result in retractions or even corrections.  

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CODA: an SCME alumnus in Sweden

Here a shining example of SCME’s successes: their former associate professor Salman Raza Naqvi made it big in Sweden! Naqvi is presently university lecturer at the faculty of health, nature and technology science of Karlstad University.

In 2023, NUS proudly extended “warmest congratulations to Engr Dr Salman Raza Naqvi for being honored by the Pakistan Engineering Council PEC) with the PEC Engineers’ Excellence Award — 2023 (Young Technopreneurs).” In 2022, he became director of the National Science & Technology Park (NSTP), due to his “impressive wealth of experience“.

On 5 January 2025, Alexander Magazinov informed the Karlstad University of Nakvi’s horrendous PubPeer record, these papers were published before Nakvi came to Sweden. Nakvi published together with known papermillers like Rafael Luque (sacked in Spain) while referencing another papermiller and massive citation buyer ,Changhe Li (see Nakvi et al 2023). He also published with the aforementioned Awais Bokhari and the late Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, who even acted as editor of his own paper:

Summaira Malik , Fareena Fatima , Asma Imran , Lai Fatt Chuah , Jiří Jaromír Klemeš , Imran Hameed Khaliq , Saira Asif , Muhammad Aslam , Farrukh Jamil , Abdullah Khan Durrani , Majid Majeed Akbar , Muhammad Shahbaz , Muhammad Usman , A.E. Atabani, Salman Raza Naqvi , Suzana Yusup , Awais Bokhari Improved project control for sustainable development of construction sector to reduce environment risks Journal of Cleaner Production (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118214 

All three men published in the Elsevier papermill-infested journal Chemosphere, for example Ahmad et al 2022. Afterwards, Bokhari acted as handling editor of Nakvi’s papers, see Almohammadi et al 2023, Asif et al 2023, Khan et al 2023 etc. Nakvi also had a retraction for plagiarism, which is probably why the Karlstad University recruited him:

Numair Manzoor , Muhammad Sadiq , Muhammad Naqvi , Umair Sikandar , Salman Raza Naqvi Experimental Study of CO2 Conversion into Methanol by Synthesized Photocatalyst (ZnFe2O4/TiO2) Using Visible Light as an Energy Source Catalysts (2020) doi: 10.3390/catal10020163 

“Following publication, concerns were brought to the attention of the editorial office by the co-authors regarding overlap with a thesis which was subsequently published [2].

Adhering to our complaints procedure, an investigation was conducted that confirmed the overlap. This retraction was approved by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Catalysts. All authors except the first author agreed to the retraction.

1. Manzoor, N.; Sadiq, M.; Naqvi, M.; Sikandar, U.; Naqvi, S.R. RETRACTED: Experimental Study of CO2 Conversion into Methanol by Synthesized Photocatalyst (ZnFe2O4/TiO2) Using Visible Light as an Energy Source. Catalysts 2020, 10, 163.
2. Iqbal, F.; Mumtaz, A.; Shahabuddin, S.; Abd Mutalib, M.I.; Shaharun, M.S.; Nguyen, T.D.; Khan, M.R.; Abdullah, B. Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 to methanol over ZnFe2O4/TiO2 (p–n) heterojunctions under visible light irradiation. J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol. 2020, 95, 2208–2221.

(Retraction 16 March 2022)

Then there are fake spectra:

Hello, Dean Niazi, we missed you!

Awais Khan , Muhammad Bilal Khan Niazi, Salman Raza Naqvi , Wasif Farooq Influence of Plasticizers on Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Methyl Cellulose-Based Edible Films Journal of Polymers and the Environment (2018) doi: 10.1007/s10924-017-0953-1 

Also this served to earn Nakvi that Swedish professorship, and we meet again the SCME assistant professor Baig from above:

Muhammad Taqi Mehran , Mutawara Mahmood Baig , Faisal Shahzad , Salman Raza Naqvi , Sajid Iqbal Gamma irradiated structural modification of Ti₃C₂T_x for high performance supercapacitors and the hydrogen evolution reaction New Journal of Chemistry (2023) doi: 10.1039/d2nj06243g 

And what else can you expect from International Journal of Hydrogen Energy:

Umair Sikander , Mohamad Fakhrul Samsudin , Suriati Sufian, KuZilati KuShaari , Chong Fai Kait , Salman Raza Naqvi, Wei-Hsin Chen Tailored hydrotalcite-based Mg-Ni-Al catalyst for hydrogen production via methane decomposition: Effect of nickel concentration and spinel-like structures International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2018.10.224 

How about hand-drawn spectra?

Muhammad Shozab Mehdi , Muhammad Taqi Mehran , Salman Raza Naqvi , Shafiq Uz Zaman , Asif Hussain Khoja , Ali Bahadar Catalytic pyrolysis of polyethylene waste with Fuller’s earth clay and metal oxides under mild conditions Materials Today: Proceedings (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.matpr.2021.12.552 

And this definetely must make the Karlstad University proud of their headhunting achievement, first author is the above-mentioned SCME associate professor Tayyaba Noor (almost 30 fake papers on PubPeer):

Tayyaba Noor, Muhammad Mohtashim , Naseem Iqbal, Salman Raza Naqvi , Neelam Zaman, Lubna Rasheed , Muhammad Yousuf Graphene based FeO/NiO MOF composites for methanol oxidation reaction Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry (2021) doi: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2021.115249 

Elisabeth Bik made a list of these 8 papers, all are hilariously fraudulent:

1. Lubna Yaqoob, Tayyaba Noor, Naseem Iqbal, Habib Nasir, Neelam Zaman Development of Nickel-BTC-MOF-Derived Nanocomposites with rGO Towards Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Methanol and Its Product Analysis, Catalysts (2019), 9, 856; DOI: 10.3390/catal9100856
2. Tayyaba Noor, Muhammad Ammad , Neelam Zaman , Naseem Iqbal, Lubna Yaqoob , Habib Nasir A Highly Efficient and Stable Copper BTC Metal Organic Framework Derived Electrocatalyst for Oxidation of Methanol in DMFC Application – Catalysis Letters (2019), DOI: 10.1007/s10562-019-02904-6
3. Lubna Yaqoob , Tayyaba Noor, Naseem Iqbal, Habib Nasir, Neelam Zaman , Lubna Rasheed , Muhammad Yousuf Development of an Efficient Non-Noble Metal Based Anode Electrocatalyst to Promote Methanol Oxidation Activity in DMFC, ChemistrySelect 2020, 5, 6023 – 6034, DOI: 10.1002/slct.202000705
4. Lubna Yaqoob , Tayyaba Noor, Naseem Iqbal , Habib Nasir, Manzar Sohail , Neelam Zaman , Muhammad Usman Nanocomposites of cobalt benzene tricarboxylic acid MOF with rGO: An efficient and robust electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), Renewable Energy 156 (2020) 1040e1054, DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.04.131
5. Tayyaba Noor, Sadaf Pervaiz , Naseem Iqbal, Habib Nasir, Neelam Zaman, Muhammad Sharif, Erum Pervaiz Nanocomposites of NiO/CuO Based MOF with rGO: An Efficient and Robust Electrocatalyst for Methanol Oxidation Reaction in DMFC, Nanomaterials 2020, 10, 1601, ; DOI: 10.3390/nano10081601
6. Lubna Yaqoob , Tayyaba Noor, Naseem Iqbal, Habib Nasir, Neelam Zaman, Khalid Talha Electrochemical synergies of FeeNi bimetallic MOF CNTs catalyst for OER in water splitting, Journal of Alloys and Compounds 850 (2021) 156583, DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.156583
7. Paper above
8. Tayyaba Noor, Neelam Zaman, Habib Nasir, Naseem Iqbal, Zakir Hussain Electro catalytic study of NiO-MOF/rGO composites for methanol oxidation reaction, Electrochimica Acta 307 (2019) 1-12, DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2019.03.116

Nakvi is not coauthor on the other 7 papers, but Noor is the lead author on all of them. She also has a connection to Scandinavia, her PhD is from NTNU in Norway. Erum Pervaiz is coauthor on one paper with badly hand-drawn spectra, while Zakir Hussain coauthored another fraudulent fabrication.

On 17 January 2025, the registrar of Karlstad University informed Magazinov:

“The matter has been handed to our internal investigation group for examination of deviations from good research practice and will be handled according to Swedish law and our internal guidelines.”

More than a year has passed. Naqvi is still in Karlstad. Everyone is happy with his performance.

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