Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design Act, 2011

This 2011 act reconstitutes the Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design (PIFD) in Lahore as a degree-awarding institution, giving it the legal power to grant its own degrees, diplomas, and certificates rather than operating under another university's authority. Section 3 formally re-establishes the Institute as a body corporate, with power to own property and sue or be sued, and confirms that its existing staff continue employment on terms no less favourable than before, and that all its existing property, rights, and liabilities carry over into the newly reconstituted Institute.

Section 4 lists the Institute's powers and purposes in detail: designing its own courses of study, holding examinations and awarding degrees and diplomas, setting employment terms for its teachers and staff (which can differ from standard government-servant terms), running student exchange programs, providing career counselling, fundraising, and generally supporting research and education in fashion and design. Section 5 requires the Institute to be open to all students regardless of sex, religion, race, creed, colour, or domicile.

Chapter III (Sections 7-14) sets out the Institute's officers — Chancellor, Pro-Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Treasurer, and Controller of Examinations — while Chapter IV establishes its governing bodies: the Senate, Syndicate, and Academic Council, each with defined powers and functions. Section 39 provides transitional rules for how the very first Senate, Vice-Chancellor (appointed for an initial three-year term), Syndicate, and Academic Council were to be put in place after the act came into force.

Section 42 gives this act overriding effect over any of the Institute's prior founding documents or instruments. Section 43 protects the government, the Institute, and its officers from lawsuits over anything done in good faith under the act, and Section 44 lets the Chancellor resolve interpretive questions or practical difficulties in applying the act, after consulting the Senate.