Student sues Presidency officials over plagiarism

ISLAMABAD: A sixth grader of Islamabad, has sued the President House at court over plagiarism, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Eleven-year-old Sabeel Haider, filed a petition in Islamabad High Court, accusing the officials of the Presidency for plagiarising and using his speech without his consent.

Haider said in his plea that he was chosen to deliver a speech at the President House in Islamabad on December 22. The script of the speech was taken from him and he was given one week for preparation for the ceremony at the Presidence on Dec 22, he said.

The ceremony was recorded and is supposed to be aired on Pakistan Television on December 25, marking the birth anniversary of founder of the nation, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

However, when Sabeel arrived at the President’s House on the given date, he was informed he will no longer be delivering the speech.

He said in his petition that another student delivered the speech he had written and prepared, claiming that his intellectual property has been stolen.

The counsel of the student in his arguments in the court of Justice Amir Farooque said that the child had prepared the script of his speech, which was given to another person without his permission. The lawyer said that as per Section 3 of Intellectual Property and Copyrights Ordinance 1967, a literary piece that the person has produced themselves cannot be used by a third party without their consent.

The counsel sought the court to issue orders for ban on transmission of the stolen speech.

The judge reserved his judgement over the maintainability of the petition.