VCs of five medical varsities move SHC against PMC

The vice chancellors of five public medical universities have approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), seeking the court's injunction to continue with the test for admissions to MBBS and BDS classes at all public and private medical colleges in the province scheduled for Sunday.

The VCs are from the Dow University of Health Sciences, the Jinnah Sindh Medical University Karachi, the Peoples University Nawabshah, the Liaquat University of Health and Medical Sciences Jamshoro and the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto University Larkana.

“They have requested the court to allow them to continue with the process of admissions at public and private medical colleges in Sindh,” told People University Nawabshah VC Dr Gulshan Ali Memon to The News on Monday.

The Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women Nawabshah is supervising the process of admissions at all the medical and dental colleges in Sindh as per the decision of the provincial admission committee but due to the abolition of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the establishment of the PMC by the federal government, students are confused about the authority which is going to conduct admissions at medical and dental colleges in Sindh.

Dr Gulshan Memon said that as per the decision of the provincial admission committee and as per their advertisement, their university was going to hold the test for admissions to MBBS and BDS classes on October 18 but suddenly the federal government abolished the PMDC on September 24 and announced holding medical admission tests all over the country by creating the PMC through an act of the parliament.

“Now, we are five VCs, including Prof Saeed Quraishy, Prof Tariq Rafi, Prof Bikhar Ram and Prof Anila Atta-ur-Rehman, who have approached the court, stating that around 29,000 students have already submitted their admission forms and sudden cancellation of the admission process will ruin their hopes,” Prof Memon added.

“The honourable court will decide about this matter. I can’t say any further on this matter”, he said, adding that the PMC’s board had yet to be formed which would formulate regulations for the admissions at the medical and dental colleges but “in violation of its own act, the PMC announced admission regulations for the year 2020-2021”.

It is worth mentioning here that Sindh government has rejected Pakistan Medical Commission Act, 2020 and announced continuing with its admission policy for the medical and dental colleges in the province, saying that the Act was passed by the joint session of the parliament in a hurry sans scrutiny and consensus of the provinces when all the opposition parties had boycotted the session.

“In the interest of students of Sindh, the provincial government will not agree to the policy of admissions in MBBS and BDS at medical universities and colleges of Sindh for the session 2020,” Sindh health minister Dr Azra Pechuho had written to Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan last week.

“After a detailed discussion with all vice chancellors of medical universities and colleges in Sindh to review the policy for admission in MBBS and BDS in the province for the session 2020 by the PMC, we unanimously decided that in the best interest of our candidates the Sindh government will not agree with the amendments in the policy. A new policy by the federal government will cause a lot of disturbance and suffering to the students.”