The future of 109 medical students is hanging in the balance due to the non-implementation of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) decision on their adjustment in other medical colleges of the province.
After winning the legal battle in the PHC against the Al-Razi Medical College for adjustment in other medical colleges, the students are confronting another issue as the Khyber Medical University (KMU) is allegedly adopting delaying tactics in complying with the court decision. Concerned about their future, the students once again took to the streets against the KMU and provincial government.
A few weeks ago while reviewing the petition of Al-Razi Medical College, a division bench of the Peshawar High Court including Chief Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Qaiser Rashid upheld the high court decision on adjustment of 109 medical students of the college in other colleges of the province. The students did not want to continue their education at the Al-Razi Medical College.
However, 82 days after the high court decision, the KMU has yet to implement the court verdict. The students have not attended classes for the past two months in their next sessions. The students have also submitted contempt of court petition in the PHC against the KMU for not implementing the court decision.
Some of the students told The News on Sunday that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member of the National Assembly Nasir Khan Khattak and the college administration was putting pressure on the KMU not to adjust the students in other medical colleges of the province.
Ishaq Haider, one of the affected students, told The News that the PTI MNA was using his office and the party’s influence to put pressure on the KMU administration to delay implementation of the court verdict.
He said the students were going through mental agony as classes had already started in the medical colleges while they had to stage protests on the roads to get the PHC decision implemented.
Another student claimed that the KMU informed them that it had prepared a list of all the students for adjustment in other colleges, but the PMDC’s no-objection certificate was required for the purpose. The same student maintained that there is no need for getting an NOC from PMDC in this case.
The students said they had also held meetings with the PMDC officials in this connection, but to no avail.On January 23, 2014, the PHC had partially allowed the review petition and maintained the high court decision on adjustment of 109 medical students of Al-Razi Medical College in other medical colleges.
The division bench also cancelled orders of the court in its previous decision on refund of fee to the students by the management of the college and quashed remarks passed against the college in the previous order. During the course of hearing, the Al-Razi Medical College’s legal counsel Iftikhar Hussain Gilani had stated that in December 2012 a division bench of the high court had passed a judgment in the students’ writ petition and issued some directives and made remarks against the college without hearing it.
Arguing that this was against the law, he said the college challenged the high court decision in the Supreme Court, which sent back the case to the high court as review petition because the college had not been heard in the previous decision. The bench observed that refund of fees to the students was unjustified as they had attended the classes and appeared in the examination.
Ziaur Rehman, lawyer for the students, submitted that the college had first claimed in its prospectus that it was affiliated with the medical university. Later, he said, the students came to know that neither the college was recognised, nor affiliated with any university. He argued that there were no facilities for the students at the college.
The counsel said the PHC in its previous decision had not only directed the KMU to allow the students to sit in the examinations, but also adjust them in other medical colleges as they didn’t want to continue education in the Al-Razi Medical College.
However, the counsel for the college produced letter from the Federal Health Ministry that had asked the PMDC to recognise the college. He said the PMDC had refused to recognize the college as it was lacking the requirements.
Source: The News.
