ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice to vice chancellor of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan, for not implementing its order regarding fake law colleges.
A two-judge bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan and also comprising Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Naqvi heard the case of fake law colleges affiliated to the BZU, Multan. The bench directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to submit the list of fake law colleges affiliated to the university and their admission record.
He asked the vice-chancellor to explain why they have not complied with the apex court’s order in the last three years. Justice Mazahar Ali Naqvi inquired from the vice-chancellor why he had been ignoring the Supreme Court’s directions.
In 2018, the Supreme Court had ordered to phase out the LLB (three-year) programme and a five-year LLB programme was introduced in September 2019. The law colleges were barred from admitting students to the three-year programme after December 31, 2018.
After the apex court’s verdict, BZU syndicate allowed 100 seats per college but the 41 colleges exceeded the limit and enrolled more students for LLB part-1 (three-year course) session 2018. The colleges were to enrol 4,100 students as they were allotted 100 seats each but they had admitted 14,000 aspirants.
Justice Ijaz asked the chancellor why the university administration did not provide students’ record to the legal directorate, adding if there will be tampering with the record then all will go to jail. He noticed that intentionally the varsity administration was using delaying tactics in providing the record.
The counsel Pakistan Bar Council said that as per the Supreme Court’s order the university had to cancel the affiliation of 22 law colleges, adding since 2018 to date it has not disassociated a single college.
The court directed the lawyer representing the colleges to file the record of all the fake law colleges, affiliated with the university.
A female lawyer, Nasreen Majeed Chohan, informed the bench that the lawyers who had highlighted the issue of fake law colleges are being targeted. She said a lawyer, Muhammad Nadeem, was arrested by the FIA when he challenged the degree of Ahsan Bhoon, Supreme Court’s senior lawyer, adding now he has been involved in a murder case.
Justice Ijaz told her to file a petition in the High Court regarding fake degrees. Nasreen said that the apex court had raised the issue of fake degrees of the lawyer in the law colleges case. The case was adjourned for an indefinite period.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022