LEGAL EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN-A REVIEW

Legal Education in Pakistan is in a colossal mess at all levels. The lack of attention by both
universities and professional bodies has tremendously affected the existing horrendous standards of legal education. Therefore, there is an urgent need to take stock of the situation. It needs fundamental transformations to make it more market oriented and to bring it in line with international standards. In this paper, an effort has been made to give an overview of the existing situation and also discuss the reforms which the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan has initiated immediately after its formation in 2002.

The Law Degree Programme:

Students who wish to have an LL.B law degree are required to have a bachelor’s degree spread
over fourteen years of education which is then followed by a three-year law course. The Punjab
University Law College (PULC) from this year has started a five-year consolidated law-degree
programme called BA-LL.B. degree programme, which is offered along with the existing three-year law degree programme. The students in this programme are admitted after completing twelve years of education. The Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), a private sector university, has also started a five-year law degree programme called ‘Law and Policy’ joint degree programme leading to BA-LL.B. Only in two universities out of all public sector universities (Peshawar and Gomal), a pre-law course at bachelor’s level is prescribed and graduates with a ‘pre-law’ course are given preference over other graduates at the time of admission in Law Schools/Colleges. There is no Law School Admission Test in any university in Pakistan except at LUMS which has introduced a ‘Scholastic Aptitude Test and /or ‘LUMS’ Admission Test’. Invariably all Law Schools/Colleges follow the conventional or Annual System of teaching and examinations. The University of Peshawar in the year 2000 introduced the semester system of teaching and examination but discontinued it last year because of practical difficulties such as the large number of students and non-availability of faculty. The PULC has also introduced the semester system for those admitted under the five-year consolidated law degree programme.

Legal Education Providers:
Legal education is generally provided through public sector universities and also by
private institutions which adhere to the curriculum and the standards prescribed by the Higher
Education Commission (HEC) in consultation with the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), a statutory body which regulates the legal profession and to some extent, legal education. There are at present approximately fifteen public sector Law Schools/colleges in Pakistan. The number of private sector law schools/ colleges affiliated with public sector universities is more than
seventy. (University of Punjab-25, BZU Multan-15, University of Peshawar-13, Islamic University Bahawalpur-7, Khairpur-5, Jamshoro-3, Gomal-2, Baluchistan-1). Apart from these, there are a number of law degree awarding institutions that run external degree programmes in collaboration with foreign universities. The HEC’s role is like a facilitator to provide a podium to all public (and private) sector institutions and the members of the Legal Education Committee of the PBC, to sit together and to review the curriculum every three years. This is done through a committee called the National Curriculum Review Committee (NCRC). The recommendations of the NCRC (Law) are then deliberated upon by a joint meeting of the representatives of the universities and the members of the PBC (Legal Education Committee). These recommendations are then forwarded to the universities for adoption of the proposed curriculum and its implementation. Under Section 10 of the Higher Education Commission Ordinance, 2002, HEC’s mandate includes the formulation of policies, guiding principles and priorities for higher education institutions. It can also prescribe conditions for the manner in which higher education institutions function. The PBC is consistently making efforts to improve the standards of legal education and it was due to PBC’s unyielding hard work that the universities imparting legal education were forced to adopt the Three-Year LL.B degree programme. Under Section 13(j) and (k) of the Legal Practitioners and Bar Councils Act, 1973, the functions of the PBC include the promotion of legal education and also the prescription of standards of such education in consultation with the universities. It is also authorized to recognize universities whose degree in law shall be accepted as qualification for enrolment as an advocate.
The revision of curriculum is not working as far as legal education is concerned. Most of the leading institutions ignore the significance of these meetings and instead send their junior nominees to participate in these deliberations. The enforcement mechanisms are left to the universities and various law colleges. The HEC certainly cannot go beyond this point as the universities areautonomous and independent in their functioning and internal management is exclusively the responsibility of the universities.
Revision of the curriculum does not mean the revision of the syllabus alone. The curriculum review includes the preparation of curricula and course material (content definition, teaching tools and the production/printing of course material), their dissemination and the training of teachers/tutors to teach them. It is a critical exercise which addresses issues as to how to support a higher education system that is characterized by quality, diversity and equity of access; and contributes to the development of intellectual scholarship that is appropriate to meet the country’s social, cultural and economic needs.
Having stated the role of the HEC and the PBC, let us briefly look at the role of the universities. The functioning of the public sector universities is marred by mis-management, unresponsiveness of the academicians, widespread politics, unbound pressure groups (of teachers, administrators and students) and unprofessional conduct. Much of the productivity of universities is wasted to resolve these issues and thus policies remain ad hoc. The main task of improving the standards of legal education is that of the academics who do not pay due attention and are unable to carry out their responsibilities. In many institutions there is no permanent teaching faculty. The teaching as well as administration of these law colleges is in the hands of practicing lawyers who due to their professional commitments are unable to do justice to legal education. In the University Law Faculties and Law Colleges the academicians are not focused and are deeply influenced by the ‘academic environment’ of their respective universities. This out-and-out apathy of the academicians has practically destroyed the system of legal education in Pakistan.


source: www.supremecourt.gov.pk/web/subsites/scp50/Articles/6/1.pdf