LLM admissions: Response sought on omission of quota for special persons

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday directed the University of Peshawar to keep one seat vacant in its LLM admissions while seeking responses from the university administration, the provincial government, and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) regarding the alleged omission of the quota for special persons.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Mudassir Aamir, heard the petition filed by Mustaqeem Khan.Advocates Ishaq Ali Qazi and Saqib Khan represented the petitioner.

According to the petition, the applicant, who has already completed his LLB and now seeks admission to the LLM programme, applied under the special persons’ quota. However, he was denied admission because no such quota was allocated for LLM admissions. This, he argued, was in violation of HEC and government directives, which mandated a reserved quota for special persons in all academic programmes, along with special concessions.

The petitioner informed the court that he had previously completed his LLB under the same special quota and had secured good marks. However, the denial of admission to LLM under this quota jeopardized his pursuit of higher education and infringed upon his rights.

His counsel argued that HEC rules mandated the implementation of quotas for special persons across all universities. He maintained that excluding a reserved quota for LLM admissions was unjustified, as open merit and special quotas must coexist.