LAHORE: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Monday told the Lahore High Court that rules had been changed and the O and A level students were no more required to seek an equivalence certificate from the Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen (IBCC) of education boards.

A student, Romana Malik, had filed a petition through Advocate Sheraz Zaka, challenging the condition of seeking equivalence certificate from the education board in addition to attestation of degrees from the HEC.

The counsel contended that the petitioner graduated from the Punjab University and completed her master’s from a private university. He said the HEC was not attesting her degrees without the equivalence certificate from the IBCC.

He argued that the petitioner was facing problems in getting an iqama (work permit) in Dubai as the HEC failed to perform its statutory obligations.

Justice Farrukh Irfan Khan observed that the HEC should have attested the degrees of the universities duly recognised by it.

During the hearing, the HEC counsel presented a notification saying that now for the attestation of masters and bachelor degrees, a student no longer needed to apply to the IBCC for O and A level equivalence certificates.

He said the rules had been changed for the benefit of the students and these would be applicable across the country uniformly. The HEC abandoned the requirement of seeking equivalence certificate from the IBCC for the O, A levels, the counsel added.

The petitioner had also challenged an order of the IBCC that refused to issue her equivalence certificate since she had not studied Islamiat and Pakistan Studies in O and A levels.

The judge disposed of the petition in the light of the report of the HEC and also set aside the impugned order of the IBCC directing the HEC to attest the degrees of the petitioner.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2019