LAHORE: A Supreme Court of Pakistan bench on Saturday directed the Punjab Chief Secretary Zahid Saeed to submit a report about vacant posts of the vice chancellors in the province. The bench expressed dismay over unavailability of regular vice chancellors at public sector universities, including Punjab University. The bench stated: “We want to reform the education sector and will start from our home [legal education].” It ordered all the law colleges affiliated with universities to submit complete record of their faculty along with affidavits within 10 days. The bench ordered the government to form a think-tank, headed by senior lawyers Hamid Khan and Azam Nazir Tarar, to furnish recommendations for overhauling the whole legal education structure and to monitor law commissions made for the all the four provinces. The think-tank was ordered to submit its first report within three weeks. The bench also summoned a record of all cases pending before various high courts regarding law colleges. The bench, comprising Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and Justice Ijazul Ahsan, restrained all public universities from awarding new affiliation to law colleges till further orders. The bench ordered the government to constitute commissions for each of the provinces to inspect the standard of the institutions and education being imparted their. The bench regretted that the standard of legal education had been declining gradually in the country as every “Tom and Dick or Harry” had been becoming part of the bar unchecked. The bench observed that all over the world, the brightest students went for legal education, but in Pakistan students with the lowest intellect level joined the legal profession. The bench remarked that to implement the policy of one-bag and one-uniform across the country was his foremost dream. The bench also expressed his annoyance over mushroom growth of private universities and went on to say that the court would shut down all these universities if it found irregularities in their establishment. Zahid Saeed appeared before the court and informed that search committees had been duly established for the appointment of the VCs. He said the process for the appointment of PU’s VC would be completed within two weeks. The bench was hearing a petition moved by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) about standard of the legal education in the country and establishment of substandard private law colleges. Earlier, former presidents of Lahore High Court Bar Association Anwar Kamal and Hamid Khan assisted the court on the matter as well as PBC vice chairman Ahsan Bhoon and its legal education committee’s head Azam Nazir Tarar. The vice chancellors of the universities in Punjab also appeared before the court. Medical colleges: An SC, while hearing a suo motu case against inflated fee structure of the medical institutions, summoned the income tax commissioner with complete record of tax returns filed by private medical and dental colleges established in Lahore. During the hearing on Saturday, advocate Ayesha Hamid, head of a court-commission, submitted reports regarding inspection of various medical and dental colleges. The bench ordered the SC office to hand over the report to Munawarul Salam, counsel for Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (PAMI) and Lahore Medical and Dental College, for their response. The bench also directed ad-hoc committee of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to submit its opinion on the reports. On behalf of the PAMI, reports were also submitted of Rawal Institute of Health Sciences, Islamabad, HBS Medical and Dental College, Islamabad and Islamabad Medical and Dental College, Islamabad about admissions made by them. The bench directed to the administration of other medical colleges to fulfill the requirements within a week. About disposal of hospitals’ waste, Ayesha Hamid submitted that there were some discrepancies in the report submitted by Environment Protection Agency (EPA) with regards to the incinerators installed the public sector hospitals for disposal of the waste. Published in Daily Times, January 21st 2018.