State of law education

SC expressed dissatisfaction with state of legal education, says it was PBC’s responsibility to ensure quality

In recent years, concerns have been expressed over the declining standard of law education in the country. Now the Supreme Court has ordered the formation of an autonomous committee to improve the quality of legal education, and asked the law ministry to provide its assistance in the context. It has told the ministry to seek inputs from the Pakistan Bar Council. The body is also to decide about the number of colleges in the country and suggest other ways and means to arrest the falling standard of legal education.

The decision came on a petition on the unsatisfactory state of law education in the country. Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial, heading a three-judge bench, delivered the judgment. According to the CJP, an important reason for the declining quality of legal education is the ever-increasing number of law schools in the country, as this has rendered it difficult to hire good teachers for so many schools. It is an unfortunate fact that a majority of the law schools operating in Pakistan only mean business – well, in the monetary sense of the word. The diminishing public trust in the ability of lawyers to successfully pursue cases in courts has also to do with the poor standard of teaching in the so-called law colleges.

In the recent past, on a petition moved by the PBC, the apex court had expressed dissatisfaction with the state of legal education, and had mentioned that it was the PBC’s responsibility to ensure the quality of law education. Consequently, the PBC had formulated Pakistan Legal Education Rules 2015. In 2019, then CJP Justice Asif Saeed Khosa had emphasised the need for restoring the nobility of legal profession. All these pleas from the highest judicial quarters have failed to put things right. We hope that the new committee’s recommendations will be heeded. There are, however, architects and masons in all walks of life.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 1^st, 2022.

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