The Lahore High Court (LHC) declared the functioning of an equivalence department at the Punjab University as illegal and void ab initio here on Monday.
Disposing of a petition filed by Advocate Sheraz Zaka on behalf of Wajid Ali, Justice Atir Mehmood of the LHC remarked that the Punjab University (PU) had no jurisdiction to recognise degrees or issue equivalence certificates. The judge declared that it was the Higher Education Commission (HEC) which had the sole authority to recognise degrees and issue equivalence. He declared that once a degree was recognised by the HEC, there could be no further objection raised by any university in admitting a student for postgraduate studies.
Advocate Sheraz Zaka argued that the PU was exploiting students by charging Rs 1,000 for the issuance of unnecessary equivalence certificates, adding that other than LLB degrees which come under the domain of the Pakistan Bar Council, the sole authority to issue equivalence certificate vested with the HEC under Section 10 of the Higher Education Commission Ordinance.
The counsel said that the PU had been acting beyond its powers and extorting money from students in the name of issuance of equivalence certificates for admission into master’s programmes and asked the court to declare the equivalence department of the PU illegal.
