PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court Chief Justice SM Attique Shah on Wednesday voiced concern over the ‘deteriorating’ standard of education observing that the education system in the province was currently heading toward collapse.

During the hearing into a contempt petition, the chief justice observed that the province seemed to have sidelined educational priorities, diverting funds elsewhere, which exemplifies educational decline.

The petition was filed by around 90 students, including Lentha Iqbal and others, against the non-implementation of the court’s judgement early this year wherein the University of Peshawar (UoP) was told to immediately disburse the amount under the Need-Based Scholarship Programme (NBSP) of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to the entitled students.

Advocate Umar Hussain appeared for the petitioners and said that the high court has accepted in Apr this year two identical petitions against withholding of their scholarships, stipends and fee exemptions to which they were entitled under the NBSP.

Students file contempt plea against non-implementation of scholarship-related judgement

He said that the court had ordered the HEC to arrange and release the remaining funds to the UoP in accordance with the terms of the scholarship programme.

The lawyer said that the court had also directed the UoP to immediately disburse all amounts already received, or to be received, from the HEC to the entitled students and such amounts should not be retained by the University any longer.

He said that the scholarship in question was a need-based programme, designed to support financially disadvantaged students enrolled in public sector universities.

The counsel said that the high court had observed that any constraint in funding couldn’t be made a ground to deny the scholarship or to make reduced payments to the petitioners. He added that the said order had not been implemented so far.

Advocate Khalid Rehman and assistant registrar (Legal) Riaz Ali Khan appeared on behalf of the UOP.

Riaz Ali Khan requested more time to resolve the issue, stating that the university was facing a deficit of over Rs2 billion.

He mentioned that last month’s salaries were delayed until the 16th of that month, and funds for the current month’s salaries were not yet available.

Chief Justice Shah criticised the state of the educational system observing that the government had failed to maintain Peshawar’s oldest university.

The bench observed that individuals occupying precious university-owned land pay a rent of just Rs500 while subleasing it to others for up to Rs500,000.

The assistant registrar said that various court cases had been filed to address the issue. The chief justice also noted that several departments at Peshawar University were closing due to a lack of student interest and pointed to unnecessary recruitments as a major cause.

The assistant registrar clarified that no non-faculty hiring had been made since 2012 and that the university still faced a faculty shortage. The bench adjourned the hearing, directing the university administration to resolve the students’ issue. It also issued notice to the HEC for responding to the petition.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2026