SC questions varsity campus in other province

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday raised questions over establishment of campus of a university in other province of the country and issued notices to Attorney General and advocate generals of the four provinces.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mushir Alam heard a case of Lahore Campus of Preston University.

The court observed that a university in one province and establishment of its campuses in another province is an important issue.

Justice Mushir Alam observed that first it will be examined as to whether establishment of campus of a university in a province is legal or not.

Barrister Ali Zafar, counsel for Preston University, submitted that no law can prevent a university to establish its campus in another province. He submitted that a case pertaining to verification of degrees of students was pending before the Lahore High Court, however, he said that the court while rejecting the application referred the matter to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for conducting an investigation in the matter.

The counsel contended that the job of the anti-graft body is to probe the corruption matters but not competent to probe the legality of the campus of a university.

Meanwhile, the court suspended the LHC order and restrained the NAB from probing till the next date of hearing of the instant matter.

The court observed that the instant matter being important relates to the future of our coming generation and issued notices to Attorney General as well as advocate generals of four provinces for their views besides issuing notice to Higher Education Commission (HEC).