Establishing the rule of law requires, among other factors, ready-for-market law graduates. After all it is from among these people that the next generation of our legal practitioners and judges shall emerge. The standards and consistency of legal education in Pakistan leave much to be desired. Our law schools have not been able to produce law graduates of first water. This fact is responsible for many problems in the dispensation of justice.
A number of initiatives have been taken recently by the Higher Education Commission and the Pakistan Bar Council to raise the standards of legal education in the country. The Supreme Court has also been supportive. Unfortunately, the approach to reform has been 2-D and the main stakeholder i.e. the universities have not been heard at all.
A 3-D approach, making the universities a party is needed for the reform initiatives to bear fruit. The HEC would do a big favour to the legal profession by increasing the funding for law schools. For their part, the teachers must consider adopting the latest instruction methodologies. Use of information technology tools for teaching law, for mooting and for law clinics will help produce the ready-for-market lawyers that the country so badly needs today. The HEC must consider facilitating standardized training for law professors. It is often pointed out that a culture of legal research is all but non- existent. It is a sign of the situation that not a single law journal has been registered with the HEC.
The PBC must contribute to the production of qualified practitioners by raising the standard of its licensing examinations.
The government can do its part in consultation with all stakeholders including the Bar, the Bench and the Academia. Leaving law schools to their devices cannot be an option.
It is suggested that the stakeholders sit together and chalk out a framework for legal education designed to produce quality law graduates. *