The Lahore High Court on Monday directed the Shaikh Zayed Medical and Dental College charge their students half-fees till a petition calling for the college’s charges to be brought in line with other public medical schools in the province is decided.
Justice Khalid Mehmood Khan issued the order on a petition by Salman Kazmi, joint secretary of the Pakistan Medical Association.
The petitioner submitted that the SZMC was charging students private college fees even through it received considerable funds from the government. After hearing the initial arguments, the court observed that the college could not “forcibly charge extra”.
The petitioner said the SZMC was charging each student Rs500,000 per year, while other public medical and dental colleges were charging annual fees of Rs12,000-Rs15,000.
He said the college was previously run and funded by the federal government to the tune of Rs1.25 billion a year for its ‘financial budget’ in addition to other annual allocations for development. On February 14, the federal government handed control of the college to the provincial government. The SZMC then submitted a project budget proposal of Rs2.2 billion for 2012-13 to the Punjab government, the petitioner said.
He said though the SZMC was a public sector college, its fee structure was equivalent to private sector medical colleges. He asked the court to instruct the administration to develop a fee structure commensurate with other public medical colleges in Punjab.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2012.
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