ISLAMABAD:The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to close illegal campuses of the private universities.
A three-member SC bench comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah heard the case pertaining to the non-issuance of degrees to the students from the private universities’ illegal campuses. Preston University and Al Khair University had set up illegal campuses in Karachi and Lahore and students had approached the court about the HEC not issuing degrees from the aforementioned campuses.
During the course of proceedings, the bench ordered HEC to formulate a procedure to issue degrees to students who had passed out from illegal campuses through some special arrangement.
Justice Bandial said that uniform implementation of the HEC’s policies should be ensured throughout the country.
He said that no compromise could be made on the provision of higher education to the young generation and directed the federal and provincial governments to fully cooperate to maintain HEC’s standards.
The bench also noted that the issue before it was whether private universities could set up sub-campuses outside their territorial limits or not.
The bench observed that the HEC had already clarified that they could not do so and issued many alerts in this regard.
The court also observed that the HEC’s view was that cooperation of the federal and provincial governments was essential to end illegal activities and yet they had not cooperated.
Advocate Ali Zafar counsel for the students, said the court had ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to pursue action against private universities.
Upon this, Justice Bandial said that the HEC had the powers and there was no need for NAB to investigate the matter.
He remarked that the top court would issue an order to the federal government to amend the laws if the Higher Education Commission (HEC) was a weak state institution.
Ali Zafar said that the students had approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) for their degrees and the LHC had declared the sub-campuses of private universities illegal.
Justice Bandial observed that the LHC had announced the verdict based on facts.
He directed the HEC to ensure the implementation of its policies.
In its order, the apex court maintained that HEC in its stance sought assistance from the authorities concerned to stop the illegal activities of the varsities, however, the centre and provincial governments had not helped the commission.