Private medical colleges blackmail students, parents, SC told

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) informed the Supreme Court on Saturday that private medical colleges blackmailed students and forced their parents to give donations for admissions. The court was told that the council was also facing difficulties, as private medical colleges filed frivolous cases with courts and obstructed decisions on one pretext or the other.

Muhammad Akram Sheikh filed the council’s reply with the apex court in the suo moto notice case. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on December 11 took suo moto notice of a news report about exorbitant fees being charged by private medical colleges and a lack of uniform admission policy. The CJP had sought a detailed report from the PMDC registrar within a week.

The PMDC was asked to furnish details of free structure, maximum limit of fee, the role of PMDC in regulating admission and action so far taken by it.

The court was told that private medical colleges resort to litigation on frivolous charges and a number of cases were pending with the High Court due to which the Regulations, 2016 remained suspended for more than a year.

The apex court was informed that in a letter addressed to the chief justice on July 24 this year, the PMDC president had requested him to take notice of misconduct of private medical colleges in the courts of law.

The court was informed that the PMDC had centralised its efforts for compliance of admission criteria and fee structure as per its Regulations 2016 after receiving complaints from students about malpractices in the admission procedure and fee structure. One particular hardship brought to the notice of the PMDC was that the college administrations blackmailed students and forced their parents to give donations for admission and this illegal practice was done in secrecy. “To curb this malpractice, the PMDC has issued notices to private medical institutions, which have been displayed on the website as well as in the print media for concentrated transparency and public interest”, the reply added.

The court was told that under Regulations, 2016, university-based boards as well as institutional admission committees had been constituted to ensure merit and transparency and control malpractices in the admission procedures.

The court was informed that the annual fee/charges per student excluding university examination fee, taxes, hostel fee and transport fee etc. did not exceed Rs642, 000, while one-time admission fee did not exceed Rs50,000.