Private medical colleges receive donations, issue no receipts, SC told

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has told the Supreme Court that some private medical colleges conducted mock exercises how to fill the templates to be provided to it so that the agency was not able to trace the actual donations given to these institutions by students.

In its report, a copy of which is available with The News, the FIA said that during inspection of the medical colleges, its teams came to know that most of these institutions have charged donations from the students.

“The donations were received in the shape of hard cash, no receipt or any proper document was given to the students in lieu of these payments. Students were terrified and reluctant to disclose true picture to the FIA,” the report said.

It said the students informed the FIA on the condition of anonymity that they were threatened by the college administrations to face dire consequences if they divulged actual picture to the agency. Many complaints were also launched against different medical colleges and the apex court was intimated about them in an earlier report of the FIA. The FIA may take action against the medical colleges if proper complaint is submitted in writing.

The report suggested that the long-term solution lies in the centralised collection of tuition/admission fees in the account of University of Health Sciences, Khyber Medical University or the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PM&DC) and then the fees may be credited into the accounts of private colleges. These institutions may charge only hostel and transportation fees and that too within the prescribed limit.

The FIA also recommended that the registration and examination fees of the private universities should be at par with government institutions.

The students having foreign nationality and foreign resident permit holders should only be entitled to get admission against foreign quota seats (FQSs), the report said and pointed out that many Pakistani students are admitted against FQSs on the basis of A level qualification though they have studied in Pakistani institutions and have not attained any degree or certificate from abroad. This practice is being adopted by these colleges only to earn maximum profit. One such student is being charged up to $18,000.

The FIA prepared the report in compliance with the directions of the Supreme Court by entrusting the investigation to its Lahore director Dr Usman Anwar. As a result, 38 colleges refunded an amount of Rs745 million to the students. But 40 colleges are still charging fees higher than the amount prescribed fee by the apex court i.e. Rs850,000.

The FIA also observed that private medical universities are charging very high fees for registration and examination as compared to the government institutions, such as UHS and KMU. Some of them are even charging Rs290,000 as university fee. Private institutions must also have similar university charges as of the government ones, it recommended.

The report noted that the private colleges have charged an amount of Rs50,000 to Rs150,000 as refundable security, but they are not refunding this amount to the students.

The apex court had directed the FIA to verify refund of excess fee by the private medical colleges to the students. The agency looked at the fee structure and refund made by the colleges to the students in the light of court directions, donations taken by the private medical colleges and enrollment of students against FQS.

The FIA teams visited the medical colleges, examined the fee record and persuaded their administrations to refund excess amount to the students.