SC to hear petition against private medical colleges’ fees

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Saqib Nisar will hear today (Tuesday) in his chamber a matter of public importance regarding private medical and dental colleges, allegedly charging over Rs 0.5 million from each student annually. Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta Advocate filed a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, making the Federation the cabinet division secretary and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) through its registrars as respondents.

The petitioner had prayed the apex court to stop all the private medical and dental colleges in the country from charging more than Rs 0.5 million per annum from students. He submitted that he had met some people worried about the fee structure of the private medical colleges and some colleges were charging more than Rs 1 million, adding that the PMDC had planned to raise the fee in near future, which could be up to Rs 1.3 million.

The petitioner had informed that under the PMDC rules, a medical college was allowed admission of 150 students in private sector medical institutions, as such if a college charge Rs 0.6 million per student per annum than from only 1 class of MBBS/BDS they earn Rs 90 million, adding that even some colleges take benefit by saying that they were working as trust etc.

He prayed the apex court to issued directives to all the private medical and dental colleges in the country not to charge more than Rs 0.5 million per annum per students.

The registrar office of the Supreme Court, however, had returned the petition with objection asking the petitioner to file it before an appropriate forum. The petitioner then challenged the order of the Registrar while filing an appeal, requesting that being matter of public importance, his petition should be decided by the apex court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. He told reporters in the Supreme Court that his petition had been fixed before the chief justice in his Chamber for today (Tuesday).