KARACHI: Future of law students studying at the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast) in Karachi is at stake following a recent decision of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) to withdraw recognition of their institution, it emerged on Saturday.

The Urdu university Karachi campus is one of the oldest institutions offering law education in Pakistan.

Speaking to Dawn, students said that they were extremely worried as the decision meant that nobody would offer them an opportunity to practice law and get a job.

If the university had violated the council’s rules and regulations, they said, only the university administration should be made responsible for the mistake/s and not the students whose future had been jeopardised by the unfair decision.

“Students like me who have completed their education would be the one most hit by the decision. We were planning to find a job once our results are out, but now we are facing an uncertain situation,” said a university student.

The PBC, he said, must not penalise students for university’s lapses.

“I belong to a well-to-do family and also earn some money from acting in TV plays. But not all students are fortunate like me. Many of my colleagues belonging to the interior parts of Sindh, Punjab, Baltistan and Kashmir even find paying university fees difficult and now when they were thinking that their troubles were over, this decision has come,” another student said.

Abdul Maroof, a public prosecutor at the city court and also a former Urdu university teacher, said: “The PBC should have fined the institution instead of suspending the university’s recognition. Such an unwise decision will only hurt students,” he said, criticising the PBC.

According to Mr Maroof, there are limited opportunities available for professional education in Pakistan especially for disadvantaged students and it is regretting that the PBC has discouraged students instead of supporting them.

Seconding his opinion, a senior university law teacher admitted that the university “had violated the PBC law and made serious mistakes”.

Tracing the history of PBC-Fuuast row, he said that the university (that was developed after merging two old colleges in 2002) had been offering law education since 1940s in Karachi.

“It was then affiliated with Karachi University. Once the university was established, the administration should have acquired recognition from the PBC for offering law education, but that was not done for almost a decade. And, when it was finally done a few years ago, it was agreed between both parties that law education would only be offered in Karachi but the university didn’t follow this rule and started offering law education at its Islamabad and Lahore campuses,” he explained.

Giving his opinion, Syed Nasir Abbas, a member of the university senate, said that the PBC decision and its subsequent advertisement that warned students of consequences if they pursued law education at the de-recognised Urdu university had greatly damaged the reputation of an institution imparting law education since 1949.

“The university administration is solely responsible for the troubles the students will face in coming days. The vice chancellor had allowed the sub-campuses to offer law education, though the council had imposed a restriction,” he said.

The Fuuast campus in Lahore, he pointed out, was illegal as it had been opened without taking mandatory approval from the university’s statutory bodies as well as the organisations whose permission was required for offering professional courses at an institution.

“The university administration decided to ignore PBC’s instructions and jeopardise students’ future for monetary benefits that has put the educational institution into another crisis,” he remarked.

He urged the president, the chancellor of the university, to set up an inquiry committee to punish those involved in the crime.

Upon contact, Dr Fahimuddin, the university registrar, said that negotiations with the council were under way and the issue would be sorted out soon.

When he was asked whether the university had signed a declaration with the PBC that the university would offer law education only in Karachi, he said: “That was the thing of the past. It’s a federal university and has the right to open a campus anywhere in Pakistan. It hasn’t given affiliation to any law college.”

On the Lahore campus, he replied: “We have cancelled it.”

And, when he was asked why the university opened a campus in Lahore without getting approval from its statutory bodies, he said: “We didn’t allow it. Some people were misusing university’s name.”

Sources said that the Lahore campus had been functioning since last year but there was no clarification from the university administration, which disowned it only when the matter went to the court.

Law education at the university’s Islamabad campus was started last year.

It is worth recalling that last month the PBC had suspended the recognition of the Urdu university for violating rules and regulations by opening law campuses in Lahore and Islamabad.

As reported in the press, the PBC secretary sent a notice to the Urdu university registrar on June 24, which reads: “The irresponsible and ill-becoming conduct of the federal Urdu university starting LLB, LLM and PhD classes without any authority at its Lahore and Islamabad campuses in gross violation of the rules has prima facie rendered itself liable to be de-recognised.”

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2014