LAHORE, April 7: The Punjab governor, Lt-General Khalid Maqbool (retired), said on Sunday the private colleges and universities failing to maintain the desired academic standards would lose their charter.

Addressing the students at a function held at the Alhamra Cultural Complex here to celebrate the award of degree awarding status to seven private educational institutions, the governor said, their would be a strict academic and financial audit of the chartered private colleges and universities by independent experts. Only those maintaining the desired standards would be allowed to continue to operate.

He directed the managements of the chartered private colleges and universities to impart free education to 20 per cent of their students. The private colleges and universities, he said, had been granted charters to remove uncertainty in respect of education in commerce, law, business administration and information technology.