HEC postpones law admission test in Balochistan
MDCAT examinations, Dow Univeristy, Karachi Sindh October 26 2025 Photo: Our Correspondent
Education Testing Council, the testing entity of the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan, has postponed the Law Admission Test, which was scheduled for November 9, 2025, in Quetta, Balochistan in view of the prevailing law and order situation. The new date for LAT will be announced in due course.
LAT has been postponed in the wake of the Government of Balochistan’s decision to impose Section 144 in District Quetta for a period of 15 days.
Separately in Punjab, the decision to extend Section 144 aims to maintain law and order and protect lives and property, amid ongoing terrorism threats and public safety concerns. Exemptions apply to weddings, funerals, burials, officials performing government duties, and courts.
Read: Punjab extends Section 144 for seven days, citing terror threats
Authorities have warned that public gatherings could be soft targets for terrorists, and extremists may exploit protests to pursue anti-state agendas.
Section 144 was originally enforced in the province on October 9 due to the protests organised by the now-banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). On October 18, a seven-day extension in the enforcement of Section 144 was announced across the province, a day after provincial cabinet forwarded a summary to the federal government seeking a formal ban on the TLP.
Read More: Can the TLP actually be banned?
After the violent protests in Lahore and an overnight operation in Muridke on October 13, the Punjab government moved to ban the outfit, sending a summary to the federal government.
Subsequently, the notification, under Section 11B (1)(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, stated that the federal government ordered the TLP to be a proscribed organisation under the Act and listed the aforesaid organisation in the first schedule to the said Act.
Following this, the Ministry of Interior issued a notification banning the TLP. It stated that the federal government has "reasonable grounds to believe that TLP is connected and involved in terrorism".