LAHORE - The Supreme Court on Saturday stopped all public sector universities from awarding new affiliations to law colleges and formed a commission to inspect institutions and their standard.
A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar and including Justice Ijazul Afzal passed the order on a petition moved by Pakistan Bar Council at the Supreme Court Lahore registry.
The bench regretted over declining standard of legal education, observing that “every Tom, Dick and Harry had become bar members”.
Anwar Kamal and Hamid Khan appeared before the court on behalf of Pakistan Bar Council. PBC vice-chairman Ahsan Bhoon and legal education committee’s head Azam Nazir Tarar were also present there.
CJP Nisar observed that he wanted uniform education in the country. “It’s my foremost dream to implement uniform education policy,” he remarked. He expressed concern over mushroom growth of private universities and observed that he would not allow public sector universities to commit irregularities.
The unavailability of regular vice chancellors at Punjab University and others irked the top judge, who asked Punjab chief secretary when these posts would be filled. The chief secretary replied that the seat (of Punjab University VC) would be filled in two weeks. He added that search committees had been set up for appointment of VCs at the universities running without vice chancellors.
The CJP directed the chief secretary to apprise the court of the vacant VCs slots in writing.
The bench also sought complete record of universities and law colleges affiliated with public sector institutions and directed the VCs to submit their affidavits within 10 days.
The court also made a think-tank to be jointly led by Hamid Khan and Azam Nazir Tarar to submit recommendations for improvement of the whole legal education system and monitoring of law commissions made for the all the four provinces. The think-tank would submit its first report within three weeks.
The CJP also sought record of all the cases pending adjudication before different high courts regarding the law colleges.
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