The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave directive to the Higher Education Commission (HEC), ordering to close all illegal campuses of private universities, across the country.
It is pertinent to note that Al Khair University and Preston University had set up illegal campuses in Karachi and Lahore and students had approached the court about the HEC not issuing degrees.
The court directed the HEC to award degrees to the students who had passed out from illegal campuses through some special arrangement. It said that uniform implementation of the HEC’s policies should be ensured throughout the country.
The SC noted that the issue before it was whether private universities could set up sub-campuses outside their territorial limits or not, adding that the HEC had already clarified that they could not do so and issued many alerts in this regard.
The bench remarked that no compromise could be made on the provision of higher education to the young generation and the federal and provincial governments should fully cooperate to maintain HEC’s standards.
Ali Zafar, counsel for the students, said the court had ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to pursue action against private universities. At this, Justice Bandial responded: “The HEC has the powers. There is no need for NAB to investigate the matter.”
The judge said if the HEC was “weak” then the federal government would be ordered to amend the laws.
“The students had approached the Lahore High Court (LHC) for their degrees. The LHC declared the [sub-]campuses of private universities illegal,” the counsel said.
As a response, HEC’s stated that cooperation of the federal and provincial governments was essential in this regard, to end illegal activities and yet they had not cooperated.
