Rejuvenating education: Pakistan’s first law university opens its doors to students

CJ Faisal Arab hopes varsity will change the scope of legal education in the country

KARACHI:

"The change begins here!" With this ambitious slogan, the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto University of Law, the country's first law university, will open its doors to prospective lawyers from July this year.

The university is set to begin its first academic session with a full-fledged faculty of law, along with three other teaching departments for business administration, economics and criminology, said the vice-chancellor, Prof Dr Qazi Khalid Ali, at the launching ceremony at Pearl Continental Hotel on Wednesday. The ceremony was presided over by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan, with the chief justice of the Sindh High Court, Faisal Arab as chief guest.

"A competitive admissions process, based solely on merit, will begin from May 3, 2015 subsequent to which, classes for the first batch of students will commence from July 22 at the city campus in Clifton," said the vice-chancellor. "The university will continue to function from the city campus until the completion of construction at its main campus, which is spread over 13.4 acres in Korangi, in 2018."

Much needed

The vice-chancellor, while justifying the establishment of the law varsity, said that in view of the recommendations of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the landmark case, titled 'Pakistan Bar Council vs Federation of Pakistan and others (PLD 2007 SC 394)', it had become necessary to develop a law university in Pakistan, which imparted legal education at par with the leading universities across the world.

"It is common knowledge that there has been a mushroom growth of substandard law colleges lacking in infrastructural facilities and quality legal education," said the vice-chancellor, quoting the apex court's judgement. "There are no eligibility criteria for admissions and dropouts from other courses find it easy to join a law course. Moreover, the quality of faculty in most law colleges leaves much to be desired."

Dr Ali recalled the apex court had concluded that the poor quality of legal education in the country was taking its toll on the bench, the bar and ultimately the quality of justice.

In his key-note address, Chief Justice Faisal Arab concurred that most graduates from local law schools did not attain the advocacy skills that graduates from renowned law schools in foreign countries possessed.

"Until now, legal education in the country has been struggling to reach the level that has been achieved by law schools in South East Asia," said the chief justice. "The [local] law school graduates do not possess legal education of the requisite standards, though Pakistani students are competent enough to get admissions to foreign law schools in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Canada."

Criticising the part-time methods of legal education being adopted by the majority of Pakistani universities and colleges, the chief justice said that this approach will take us nowhere even if we established 20 more universities. "Full-time degree programmes being taught by permanent faculty members, who have more time to study themselves and then deliver lectures, are a perquisite to good legal education."

He added that the law schools must take admissions tests before admitting students, instead of considering a graduation degree sufficient for this purpose.

Tajikistan ambassador, Sher Ali Jononov, provincial ombudsman Asad Ashraf Malik, Higher Education Commission's executive director Prof Dr Mansoor Akbar Kundi and Board of Intermediate Education chairperson Prof Anwar Ahmed Zai also spoke at the ceremony.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2015.