LHC declares PU equivalence department illegal

Lahore: The Justice of Lahore High Court Atir Mehmood declared the function of Punjab University equivalence department as illegal.

On Monday, the justice of Lahore High Court announced the final verdict reserved on March 14^th, 2017 observing the Punjab University had no jurisdiction to recognize degrees or to issue equivalence certificates or degrees.

The judge said, the Higher Education Commission, is the only authority to recognize the as well as to issue the equivalence certificates.

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Once the degree is recognized by the commission, then there can be no more objections from any institute in giving admission to an aspirant for postgraduate programs.

This verdict came on a case filed by Wajid Ali. The lawyer of the petitioner Sheraz Zaka submitted the only right to recognize the degree rested along with higher education commission while the Punjab University was playing with the aspirants by charging Rs1, 000 for issuing degrees as well as equivalence certificates through its own department.

The advocate argued that the commission was authorized to attest the degrees under the HEC Ordinance, 2002. As higher education was a federal subject, the right to attest degrees rested along with the higher education commission and not the varsity, he said.

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The counsel said that the varsity had been acting beyond its powers and forcefully getting money from the students in the name of issuance of equivalence certificates and degrees for admission in master’s level programmes and requested the court to declare the department of PU as illegal.

The counsel of Punjab University in his reply had said that the establishment of the equivalence department was a policy decision of the varsity and the court cannot interfere in this issue.

He furthermore asked the court to dismiss the petition for being not justifiable.

The HEC had submitted the PU’s equivalence department was unlawful and should be disbanded. In its response to the writ petition, the commission said that the law permitted the Higher Education commission to determine equivalence and recognition of degrees, diplomas and certificates granted by the educational institutes within the country and abroad.

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The HEC maintained there can be no facility or power to any other department just like the PU equivalence department to practice a parallel system of equivalence since it led to falsehood within the equivalence scheme as provided by the Higher Education Commission.

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Claiming the department amounted to usurpation of HEC powers, the HEC had appealed the court to declare the department illegal.