PESHAWAR: A student has moved Peshawar High Court against a public sector women university here, challenging withholding of her degree and demanding extra amount from her despite coverage of her academic expenses through a government scholarship.

The student, Ruqaya Yousaf, filed a petition, requesting the court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional the impugned demand of around Rs130,000 raised by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University, Peshawar, against her.

She prayed the court to also declare as illegal and violative of fundamental rights of the petitioner the withholding of her degree, transcript and other academic documents by the university.

She sought directives of the court for the university management to reconcile the petitioner’s account in accordance with the official scholarship record maintained by Higher Education Commission (HEC) and waive/adjust all alleged outstanding dues covered under HEC Need- Based Scholarship Programme (NBSP).

The petition filed through Advocate Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel includes as respondents the university vice-chancellor, its controller of examination, its scholarship in-charge and regional director of HEC.

The petitioner stated that she was a regular student of the BS chemistry programme at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University (SBBWU), Peshawar, and successfully completed all requirements of her degree programme in the year 2025.

She said that during course of her studies, the petitioner, on account of her merit and financial need, was duly selected as a beneficiary of HEC Need-based Scholarship Programme, which was a fully funded scholarship covering tuition fee and other approved academic expenses for the entire duration of the degree programme.

The petitioner stated that upon completion of her degree in the year 2025, she applied to the university for issuance of her degree, transcript and other academic documents, however, to her utter surprise, the university illegally and arbitrarily demanded payment of around Rs130,000 on account of alleged outstanding dues pertaining to four semesters, and made issuance of the petitioner’s degree conditional upon such payment.

She said that she approached federal ombudsman for redressal of her grievance, wherein representatives of both HEC and the university appeared and were heard at length.

She said that the representative of HEC categorically stated that all recurring grants including scholarship allocations up to the third quarter of financial year 2025-26 had already been released to the university and no financial liability whatsoever was outstanding against HEC.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2026