May 26, 2006	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 27, 1427

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LAHORE, May 25: Punjab Education Secretary Syed Khalid Akhlaq Gillani deposed before a division bench of the Lahore High Court on Thursday that powers to take action against illegal education institutions now vested in district governments and the provincial government was no longer competent to enforce a regulatory discipline in this regard.

Appearing in person under a court directive in the proceedings of a writ petition through which advocate Syed Hassam Qadir Hashmi submitted that the Higher Education Commission had failed in banning as many as 116 universities and professional colleges operating illegally across the province, the secretary stated that the Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) Ordinance, 1984, was still a legal instrument for the registration of private universities, colleges and schools.

But the ordinance, the education secretary submitted, had only a limited application because it was not meant for monitoring the performance of the educational institutions in the private sector. Such a job, he stated, was entrusted to the HEC in 2001 and the commission had the powers to recommend to the provincial governments for the closure of institutions which were not imparting quality education.

The bench, comprising Justice Mohammad Muzammil Khan and Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Razvi, directed the secretary to file the reply of the writ petition and also inform the court about the law under which district governments were empowered to take action against unlawful educational institutions.

The court also directed the secretary to submit what exactly was the ambit in which the education department was working.

The court adjourned further hearing in the petition till June 14 as the secretary submitted he would require about two weeks to prepare such a report. The court directed the secretary to make the report comprehensive by incorporating in it the number of private institutions with the detail that how many of them were imparting learning in each of the professional disciplines.

The court also required the secretary to report about the government steps taken against the institutions which the HEC had recommended for closure.

As for the application of the Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) Ordinance, 1984, the court directed the secretary to also submit in the report as to what legal action could be initiated if certain institutions breached the charter given to them under the ordinance.

The court earlier decided to drop ex-parte proceedings against three universities and colleges which joined the proceedings and were represented through their counsel. The petitioner’s counsel Azam Nazir Tarar and Hasan Makhdoom stated that many universities and colleges were operating illegally in the Punjab with the sole purpose of fleecing helpless students in the name of imparting education in all the fields of professional learning, including information technology, accounts, commerce, business administration, medicine, computer and law. Their degrees were not being accepted for admission to higher education institutions and jobs even within the country, the counsel submitted.

They submitted that the HEC was obliged under section 10 of the Higher Education Commission Ordinance, 2002, to bring higher education under a regulatory discipline but it failed to do so.