FAISALABAD, Oct 15: The Government College University Faisalabad (GCUF) has introduced a five-year law programme and it will launch three postgraduate diplomas next month.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, law department director Zile Atif flanked by Mass Communication director Dr A R Khalid said the five-year programme would help commence a bright future for the legal fraternity and improve the standard of judicial system.

He said the programme launched under the instructions of Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) would ensure the rule of law and dispensation of justice to the poor.

“This 180-credit hour programme has 10 semesters and special emphasis will be laid on communications and computer skills,” he said and added that subjects, including cyber, media and environment had also been included in the degree. Students having degrees of FA/FSC/A level or equivalent would be entitled for admission, he added.

Atif said it was the low standard of graduation, which forced the HEC and PBC to recommend five-year law programme like other professional degrees such as MBBS and engineering.

A modern syllabus had been approved to make the programme a success and a committee of experts selected the curriculum.

Regarding postgraduate diplomas, he said they would be evening programmes for people working in different fields. The subjects selected for the diplomas are banking, labour and environment.

Spelling out the recognition of the law degree, he said the long-running issue had been resolved now by the PBC and in future there would not be problems of degree issuance.

Scores of law department students who passed out from the institution had been struggling for degrees, as they were not considered law graduates because the GCU was not recognised by the PBC.

For this purpose, students had staged various protest demonstrations and held talks with the administration.