LEGAL EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN-A REVIEW. Professor Ahmed Ali Khan

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1 1 LEGAL EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN-A REVIEW Professor Ahmed Ali Khan 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 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. Professor Ahmad Ali Khan Dean Faculty of Social Sciences University of Peshawar Ph: dean_ss@upesh.edu.pk Administers a semester-based system. The International Islamic University at Islamabad offers a law degree called LL.B (Shari a) which is a five year semester based programme.

2 2 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 are

3 3 autonomous 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. Higher Degrees in Law and Research Activities: The programmes for higher degrees in law are not fully organized. Only a few public sector universities offer Masters Degree in Law. These programmes differ from university to university. PULC is offering an LL.M degree and has also started a PhD programme. The University of Peshawar is offering an LL.M. programme only but has recently prepared courses for Ph.D. degree programme. Karachi University is offering only an LL.M degree programme. The International Islamic University, Islamabad is offering an LL.M in Shari a. The NCRC in Law of HEC has prepared guidelines and courses for an LL.M. degree programme which have been circulated to all the universities for comments. These recommendations are based on the HEC Minimum Quality Criteria for M. Phil./Ph.D. level studies in Pakistani Universities.

4 4 Legal research amongst the faculty members and students is non-existent. In almost all institutions imparting legal education, students are not exposed to any kind of research and legal writing. In most of the public sector institutions, there is no full-time faculty. The research culture is missing and no genuine or quality research is carried out. Only two public sector universities are publishing legal research journals, which are further not HEC recognized/indexed. Restructuring of Legal Education: The HEC has realized that it is necessary to streamline and transform the legal education in Pakistan. Under the leadership of its Chairman, HEC has taken concrete steps to regulate the legal education. In this connection a project has been approved whereby the HEC will set up three Law Universities in Pakistan. Forty LL.M./Ph.D. scholarships have been notified in the national press which will be awarded to young law graduates who will be inducted as faculty-members in these universities. Thus a comprehensive and sustainable scheme has been prepared to reform and modernize the legal education in Pakistan. The Law and Justice Commission has also announced a substantial grant specifically for the improvement and innovative approaches in the field of Legal Education under its Access to Justice project. It is submitted that the grant meant for Legal Education may be transferred to the HEC to strengthen its Legal Education Project. Some suggestions: Higher education systems everywhere are in a constant state of change. In particular, the changes in the socio-economic context caused by the impact of globalization have inevitably led to changes in the higher education sector. To check the declining standards of legal education critical actions are required by all concerned. 1. Setting up of a Legal Education Reform Commission. The setting up of a Legal Education Reform Commission is absolutely necessary because it will scrutinize the functioning of law schools and examine all aspects of legal education including the contemporary trends in other countries. The recommendations of the commission may be placed before all stakeholders and consensus may be developed for reforms in legal education.

5 5 2. Removal of Dual Control Currently the HEC, PBC, the universities and various boards of governors jointly administer and control the legal education. The PBC, being a elected body, is not in a position to prescribe standards of legal education, whether alone or in consultation with universities. Legal education is an academic subject and the universities must be given exclusive authorization to prescribe various courses with the support of the HEC. It is proposed that all Law Faculties and Law Colleges jointly form a curriculum review committee comprising of the senior members of their respective Boards of Studies/Boards of Faculties. This will be a modified form of the existing NCRC functioning under the HEC. The new NCRC will be a body that may meet annually under the HEC, or without the HEC, and deliberate upon new schemes/ techniques to meet the needs of legal profession and the market. The committee may prescribe minimal core courses for all law students. The rest may be left to the local needs and requirements of the concerned university. The power to recognize law degrees may still continue to be vested in the PBC. 3. A Five-Year Consolidated Law Degree Programme. A multidisciplinary approach to a law degree is much needed. Thus, apart from the major subjects in law, a student should be required to take supportive minors of sociology, economics, logic, political science, history of philosophy etc. This interdisciplinary approach will certainly improve the standards of legal education and better law graduates will be able to meet market requirements. The HEC has already committed to the PBC to introduce a consolidated fiveyears Law degree programme after twelve years of education by the year Better Employment Prospects The improvement of Legal Education is dependent on better terms and conditions of service for law teachers. The universities and other law colleges offer inadequate salary packages to law teachers as legal education is being treated as par with other disciplines. However, law is a professional subject in great demand, and cannot be treated at par with other sub-sectors or disciplines of education. Thus it may be possible to get a good chemist, botanist, historian or a political scientist with the present salary package but it is extremely difficult to employ a bright person as law teacher at the same package. The result is that there is a constant erosion in this area. Realizing this aspect of legal education, the S.A. Rehman Commission ( ) proposed an attractive package for law teachers. It is unfortunate that this aspect of the recommendation was always ignored not only by the policy-makers but also by the PBC.