Legal Education in Pakistan: An Overview

Abstract

Legal education in Pakistan was initiated before independence and dates back to the 1800s. The first legal education institution was established under the name of ‘University Law College’ in 1868. Currently, there are more than 150 institutions offering law programs, which include universities and law colleges. These institutions are regulated by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and Higher Education Commission (HEC). Over the past decades, there have been a lot of concerns raised on the quality assurance mechanism with regards to legal education in Pakistan. In line with this, the objectives of the current study is to identify and analyse the roles and responsibilities of the HEC and the PBC as regulators of legal education in the country as well as to identify the strengths and weaknesses within this regulatory system as a result of an overlapping of powers between the two bodies. The article ends with recommendations for improvement.