Supreme Court directs HEC to close illegal campuses of universities

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday directed the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to close all illegal campuses of universities.

A three-member bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial issued the directives while hearing a case related to the non-issuance of degrees to the students from illegal campuses of private universities.

The Supreme Court has also directed the HEC to formulate a procedure to issue degrees to the students passed from the illegal campuses. The court also directed HEC to ensure the implementation of its policies.

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While the federal and provincial governments have been ordered to assist the HEC in maintaining qualitative and standard education.

The apex court remarked that no compromise will be made on the provision of higher education to the young generation. It also asked the HEC whether private universities are allowed to establish campuses outside their premises.

To this, the HEC clarified that the universities are not allowed to establish campuses outside their premises.

The court, after hearing this, directed authorities to issue alerts to private varsities in this regard.

In its order, the apex court maintained that HEC in its stance sought assistance from the authorities concerned to stop the illegal activities of the varsities, however, the federal and provincial governments had not helped the commission.

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During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer requested the court to order the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to take action against the private universities.

To this Justice Umar Ata Bandial remarked that HEC has powers, hence, there was no need to ask NAB for conducting an investigation.