PESHAWAR, Aug 5: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday reserved its judgment on a writ petition filed by 92 students of CECOS University Peshawar, challenging non-recognition of their engineering degree by the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

The two-member bench comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Dost Muhammad Khan observed that when the university was given accreditation by the PEC, then why have these degrees from the same institution not been accredited.

The bench took exception to the functioning of a large number of educational institutions without recognition, and observed that the concerned organisations, including the PEC, had not been fulfilling its responsibilities in that regard.

Justice Dost Muhammad observed that education had been commercialised and large advertisements of non-recognised institutions had been appearing in the media. The bench observed that these institutions had been playing havoc with the future wellbeing of students, and even parents had to sell their ornaments and immovable properties to pay the fees of their children.

Former attorney general for Pakistan, Qazi Muhammad Jamil, appeared for the petitioners, Parvez Afzal and others, and contended that initially CECOS (Continental Electronic and Computer Oriented System) was a College of Engineering and Technology and was affiliated with the Al-Khair University. He added that these students got admission in the engineering course in 1997.

Mr Jamil contended that through Ordinance No 21 of 2001, the NWFP Government awarded a charter to CECOS to open a university. He added that the petitioners were awarded degrees in Nov 2001 following which they applied to the PEC for recognition of their degrees, but the council turned down their request.

When the PEC had recognised the CECOS University in 2002, Mr Jamil contended, then it had no legal authority to decline recognition to the said degree. He added that the PEC had given a cut off date of 2002 for recognising degrees of students which was unjustified.

He argued out that the PEC's executive council put forward a formula that these petitioners should attend remedial courses for four months and then appear in an exam. He added that when these students had already cleared their examination then why they should attend the remedial course.

Advocate Muhammad Ali appeared for the PEC and contended that these petitioners were students of Al-Khair University which was not a recognised institution.

He argued that the CECOS University was given its charter in 2001 and some of its courses were recognised by the PEC in 2002. His counter argument was how could the PEC recognise the degree of students who had studied in another university whose courses were not accredited by PEC.