ISLAMABAD, Jan 8: The Higher Education Commission (HEC)is being pressurized by the owners of private sector universities, which have been declared illegal, to recognize their operations, an official source told Dawn.

The source said since the publication of Higher Education Commission's advertisement containing names of institutions operating unlawfully, their owners have started pressurizing the commission to legalize their operations.

During the last couple of months, the Higher Education Commission has embarked upon a campaign titled 'Parents Alert' under which it is publishing names and addresses of those degree-awarding institutions which were operating unlawfully.

The commission says that degrees from such institutions are not recognized. Parents have been cautioned against such universities as their children might face problems in finding jobs in public as well as private sectors.

In the advertisement, two categories of degree-awarding institutions are mentioned. In the first category, there are about 79 local charted universities which are unlawfully operating outside their jurisdictions. Though these universities have been granted charters for a certain province or area, they have set up their sub-campuses throughout the country without meeting the criteria.

The second category consists of about 100 institutions which claim to be affiliated with foreign universities.

In response to a question, the source said they were using every possible tactic - ministers, bureaucrats both civil and military - to pressurize the quarters concerned at the Higher Education Commission to get the names of their institutions out of the list.

However, so far, the commission has refused to listen to any such reference and the advertisement is appearing every now and then in the media, the source said.

He said all such universities were being run by powerful families which had access to the corridors of power.

"If we fail this time, the country will never be able to get rid of this menace again," the source added.