LAHORE: The Higher Education Commission announced postponement of the Law Graduate Assessment Test scheduled for Sunday (tomorrow) in Punjab after the Lahore High Court granted stay against the HEC failure to establish examination centres in Multan and Bahawalpur.

`The Law-GAT has been postponed and new date will be announced later,` a statement issued by the HEC said.The court passed the order on a petition filed by a law graduate from Bahawalpur, Mahreen Fatima.

Pleading the petition, Advocate Chaudhry Aftab Mubarak told the court that the petitioner being a permanent resident of Bahawalpur division had applied for the Law-GAT.

He said similarly so many other law graduates from the same division also applied for the test.

However, he said, the HEC did not establish its centres for the examination in Bahawalpur division to f acilitate the candidates belonging to south Punjab.

He said the petitioner and other candidates hadto face hardship by travelling to Lahore for the examination. He pointed out that previously all the examinations for enrolment as an advocate had been held in Bahawalpur, in which students of divisional level appeared. He said there was no legal bar to establish examination centrein Bahawalpur.

The counsel asked the court to order the respondent to establish an examinationcentreinBahawalpur for the Law-GAT to facilitate the candidates of Bahawalpur division.

A counsel appearing on behalf of the HEC showed its inability to constitute centres at Multan and Bahawalpur but failed to provide any legal justification.

The courtobserved that the lack of the centres at least the LHC benches level was not only a discrimination with the applicants of the areas but also amounted to depriving them of their fundamental rights.

`Respondents are restrained to hold the examination all over Punjab,` said the order passed by the court, which also required the respondents,including Punjab Bar Council, to submit their replies by Aug 7.