New medical colleges: Secretary summoned over ‘illegal opening’

Petitioner says government has not obtained regulator’s nod.

LAHORE: Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court, on Monday, issued notices for February 25 to the health secretary and other respondents on a petition challenging the opening of four medical colleges without recognition from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

The petitioner submitted that the degrees awarded by these colleges would be useless without recognition by the supreme governing body of medial and dental studies.

Advocate Noshab A Khan filed the petition stating that the Punjab government had started academic sessions in four medical colleges across the province without fulfilling basic requirements. The government remained indifferent to the students’ concern that the colleges were not recognised by the PMDC, he submitted.

The petitioner said that the government would need to seek PMDC recognition, with retrospective effect, in order to give validation to the qualifications awarded by the medical colleges. He, however, told the court that there is no precedent regarding grant of recognition by the PMDS in retrospect.

The petitioner said that students risked wasting an academic year. If the government was not checked, the students were bound to suffer grave and irreparable loss, he said.

He prayed the court to declare the opening of these colleges illegal and without legal authority. He also prayed the court to stay the functioning of the colleges till final disposal of the petition.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2011.