LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday suspended an order of a single bench and allowed functioning of the Punjab University’s (PU) equivalence department. The bench stayed the operation of impugned judgement and temporarily restored the department. It also issued notices to the parties for April 24. The single bench consisting of Justice Atir Mahmood on April 1 had declared illegal the functioning of the equivalence department. The PU administration challenged the single bench’s verdict through an intra-court appeal. Counsel for the PU Malik Awais Khalid pleaded that the single bench passed the impugned decision beyond any justification. He said the university, being governed by the Punjab Higher Education Commission, had the power to recognise degrees. He claimed that the power of the HEC-Federal to recognise the degrees was a case of different nature. He requested the court to set aside the impugned decision and allow the equivalence department to function.