The delayed registration of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences(LUMHS) College of Pharmacy with Pakistan Council of Pharmacy (PCP) has become a stumbling block for the students of the college's first two batches in obtaining their degrees and licenses.
As many as 86 students have knocked the door of the Sindh High Court (SHC), which issued notices to the official respondents on Thursday, to help them acquire their degrees and licenses.
The counsel of the petitioners, Advocate Ali Ahmed Palh, appraised the court that the college inducted 32 students in 2015 and 52 in 2016 who are all petitioners in the case. Both the batches have completed their five years of education. However, now PCP, its Sindh chapter and LUMHS are asking the students to take a council conducted exam, dubbed as a screening test, in order to become eligible for the degrees and licences. The test is scheduled for November 14.
The lawyer claimed that the college all along kept the students in false hope that they will be provided registered degrees upon completion of their education. He maintained that the college's D-Pharmacy programme became registered with the PCP in 2017 and it is empowered to take the exams under the provision S18 of the Pharmacy Act, 1967.
However, the first three batches enrolled till 2017 have been made to the PCP conducted exam.
The petitioners claimed that one of their faculty members, who has been appointed as a member of PCP, kept assuring them that the registration matter concerning the batches of the petitioners has been resolved. The lawyer informed the court that a copy of the Whatsapp conversation between a student and the said member is available on record.
"The act of the respondents is illegal and unjustified and the petitioners are being treated unequal because of the neglect [in registration of the college] of the institute itself," they contended through their counsel. Advocate Palh referred to an identical case concerning the PCP and some 250 graduates of Federal Urdu University in which the SHC waived the condition of the council-conducted test while ordering the latter to issue the degrees and licenses. The same order was upheld by the apex court later, the lawyer added.
The petitioners prayed the court to order the respondents to award them registered degrees as well as license of D-Pharmacy without taking any pre-registration exam. The also pleaded before the SHC's bench to bar the respondents from conducting the November 14 screening test.
The bench while accepting their plea restrained the PCP from taking the test and put all the respondents including officials of the PCP, LUMHS, Dean College of Pharmacy and Sindh secretary specialized healthcare and medical education on notice for November 16.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2021.
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