Shaikh Zayed Medical College: PMA to move LHC against high fees

College fees equivalent to private colleges, say officials.

LAHORE:

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) will move the Lahore High Court to force Shaikh Zayed Medical College to bring down its fees in line with other government colleges, said PMA officials on Saturday.

In a statement, PMA officials said that the college charged its students Rs500,000 a semester, which was a “great injustice” as it was a government college funded entirely by the federal government.

“It is sheer incompetence on the part of the federal government ... This is the only government medical college charging fees equal to the private sector,” said the statement.

The PMA officials said that they had sought to address the issue through bureaucratic channels, but been met with red tape. They had raised the issue with the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, which had referred the matter to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and the Health Ministry.

They in turn had sent the matter to the Cabinet Division secretary, who was responsible for the college’s affairs under the Rule of Business 1973.

“The PMA’s demand is now lying with the cabinet secretary who is not interested in taking a decision on the matter,” he said.

The PMA appealed to the parents of SZMC students to register at PMA House Lahore at 66, Ferozepur Road so that they could come up with a strategy to get the government to lower the fee structure at the college.

They said a petition would be filed in the LHC through Advocate Noshab A Khan.

The statement was signed by PMA officials Dr M Tanveer Anwar, Dr Izhar Ahmed Chaudhry, Dr Shahid Malik, Prof M Ashraf Nizami, Dr Ehsanur Rehman, Dr Yasmin Ehsan, Dr Sabahat Habib Khan and Dr Salman Kazmi.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2012.