ISLAMABAD, Sept 21: The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) is holding a meeting of its enrolment committee next week on the directions of the Supreme Court to settle an unremitting row over recognition of Al-Mizan Law College Rawalpindi by Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology Islamabad.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain had ordered the PBC, a mother organisation that oversee the affairs of the legal fraternity, to immediately convene the meeting of its enrolment committee and resolve the issue that was simmering for the last almost seven years and a cause of distress among its students.
The court had taken up a joint appeal the other day which was moved by around 80 students of the law college against the decision of the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench that had upheld the point of view of the PBC.
During the proceedings Justice Khawaja lamented the deteriorating standards of the law colleges that had mushroomed in the country saying the lowering quality of the education these colleges impart could be gauged from the kind of assistance thecourts were getting.
“How can we expect a man on the street or a politician to obey laws when we ourselves have no respect for it,” Justice Khawaja had said.
When convened by Secretary PBC Mohammad Arshed, the committee will be headed by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani with President Supreme Court Bar Association Yasin Azad and Kalbe Hassan as its members.
“Enrolment committee will dispose of the matter by next week on merit without being influenced in any manner with the pendency of the case before the Supreme Court,” the court ordered with a direction that the case will be resumed again after two weeks.
Advocate Sheikh Ehsanud Din, the President of the Rawalpindi High Court Bar appeared to represent the students before the apex court while Advocate Kalbe Hassan represented the council.
Sheikh Ehsan pleaded that the council had put the future of the students of the college at stake by not recognising the college.
The PBC is seized with the recognition issue of the college since 2005 by refusing to enroll the students of the law college. The council is insisting upon the Al-Mizan Law College to get affiliated with the Punjab University on the territorial jurisdiction of which it falls instead of the Urdu University.
The Urdu University had also approached the Islamabad High Court and then the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court requesting the courts to direct the PBC to review its decision of not giving recognition to the university as an institution imparting legal education.Established in 2002 through an ordinance, the Urdu university was created in Public Sector to promote learning in different fields of education with authority to affiliate, de-affiliate educational institutions and inspect colleges and other institutions.
Through a letter No 475/2005 under Rule 15(a) of the Pakistan Bar Council Legal Education Rules 1978 the university had requested the council to recognise the university and through subsequent communications also provided a charter of the university, detail of faculty and a copy of the syllabus of LLB classes.
On July 29, 2005, the council had intimated the university that its Legal Education Committee had taken strong exception to the affiliation of the Al-Mizan College by the Urdu university as the council had not recognised the college besides the college was also beyond university’s territorial jurisdiction.