Registration: Students of four medical colleges to protest today

Students demand resolution before MBBS Part 1 exams start on Dec 19.

LAHORE:

Students of Gujranwala Medical College, Sahiwal Medical College, DG Khan Medical College and Khawaja Safdar Medical College Sialkot will hold a demonstration outside the University of Health Sciences (UHS) today in protest at the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC)’s refusal to register their schools.

The UHS has offered to set a provisional exam for the 400 students at the four colleges, which were opened a year ago. The protesting students say this is not good enough, and they want the issue of registration resolved before December 19, when MBBS Part 1 exams are to start. The students have formed an association called the Young Medical Action Committee (YMAC) to press the PMDC to recognise their colleges.

“We don’t want to sit in a provisional exam. Now we are hearing that the Punjab government is considering making a provincial council to register us, but that won’t resolve our issue immediately,” said Azhar, an office bearer of the YMAC. “If we sit the exam on December 19 and then the PMDC tells us our exams weren’t legal, our whole academic year will have gone to waste. Whatever decision the government makes, it must be made before December 19,” he said.“The future of 800 students is at risk,” said another student, Faizan.

A student from Khwaja Safdar Medical College said that classes had taken place for the first year at the Nursing Institute next to the District Headquarters Hospital. “The next batch of MBBS students has also been admitted,” he said. “The students of all four colleges are connected and we will protest outside the UHS to make our voice heard.”

A student from Sahiwal Medical College said that it was difficult to study when she was not even sure her efforts would be rewarded. “It is the uncertainty that is most upsetting. The provincial and federal governments should clearly tell us about our stature,” she said.

The four colleges were established by the Punjab government last year, but the PMDC says they do not meet requirements for facilities and has so far refused to register them.

A UHS spokesman said that the matter was for the PMDC to decide. “They are our students. We are setting their exams and we will announce their results. The matter of registration, however, is for the PMDC,” he said.

“We sympathise with the students but this is a legal issue,” said a PMDC official. “The colleges are not registered and the unregistered students cannot sit exams, whether provisional or regular.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2011.