PHC stops medical colleges from suspending admissions

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday stopped private medical colleges from suspending the admissions of students and ordered a status quo in this respect.

A division bench of the PHC comprising Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid and Justice Lal Jan Khattak directed Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) to submit a record of admission’s procedure, interviews and merit lists of the medical students.

During the hearing, the chief justice expressed anger at the Law Division for not constituting a medical tribunal and directed the Law Ministry to notify the rules.

The petitioners Zarghoona, Niaz, Amna Bibi, Wajih-u-Rehman and others had challenged the PMC’s orders on suspensions of their admissions. The counsels for petitioners Barrister Rokhan Nafees, Salman Fiaz Mir, Haziq Ali Shah and Junaid Zaman advocates argued that the admissions of students could not be suspended or canceled due to a dispute between private medical colleges and the PMC. They added that students had started taking classes at the private medical colleges but now their admission had been canceled.

PMC Vice-President Ali Raza appeared before court and submitted that admissions at only five medical colleges had been suspended. He said the commission had granted 20 marks to private colleges for interviews but had not provided a free hand to them.

Ali Raza said the PMC had directed the private medical colleges in March to provide a record of the admissions but the five medical colleges did not comply with the order and that is why their admissions were suspended.

The deputy attorney general argued taking such decisions was the domain of the medical tribunal.The chief justice inquired from the state lawyer as to why a free hand was given to medical colleges for substituting fees in property documentation or receiving fees as a whole for the degree. The hearing was adjourned till May 27.