Punjab MBBS seats for unrecognised colleges
Punjab gives MBBS seats to four unrecognised colleges
Lahore, July 27: The Punjab government has allocated 100 MBBS seats each
for the under-construction four medical and dental colleges in the
public sector which are not recognised by the Pakistan Medical and
Dental Council (PMDC), sources said on Monday. The PMDC
officials called it a serious violation of the council's ordinance and
rules. Sources said the Punjab government had allocated 100 MBBS
seats each for the under-construction medical colleges in Sialkot,
Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan and Sahiwal. These colleges are not
recognised by the PMDC so far and are not functional as yet.According to
sources, the Punjab health department directed the University of Health
Sciences (UHS) to grant affiliation to these four colleges. Punjab health additional secretary Mushtaq Ahmad Sulehria said
the provincial government had allocated 100 seats each for the four
under-construction colleges nearing their completion. He said
though these medical colleges had not been recognised by the PMDC so
far, the Punjab government was authorised to allocate seats for these
medical colleges before recognition by the council. He said the
health department had directed the UHS management to affiliate these
medical colleges so that eligible candidates could get admissions in
these colleges after the declaration of Entrance Test results. He said
the construction of these colleges was likely to be completed by the end
of this year. To a question, the official said the Punjab
government would apply for the recognition of these colleges after the
Entrance Test results. PMDC registrar Dr Ahmad
Nadeem Akbar said the four medical colleges were not on the list of
recognised public sector medical colleges in the province. "The
PMDC has not recognised these medical colleges. So, the Punjab
government has no right to allocate MBBS seats for these colleges," he
said adding, such step would be considered a criminal act and serious
violation of the PMDC Ordinance. The registrar said the Punjab
government's decision would also be considered a violation of the Para
279 of a Supreme Court's reported verdict (PLD 2007 SC 323). According
to the apex court's judgment, Dr Akbar said, no provincial government
could allocate seats for MBBS classes if the medical college did not
fulfill requirements of the PMDC. He said the Punjab government
was playing with the future of students, as the PMDC would not allow
them to get admissions in the said colleges unless these colleges got
recognition certificates from the council. He said the PMDC had
recognised 13 government medical colleges across the province which are:
Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore (being re-inspected for seat
allocation), Army Medical College, Rawalpindi (allowed 200 MBBS seats
per year), Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore (250 seats), King
Edward Medical University, Lahore, (being re-inspected for seat
allocation), Nishtar Medical College, Multan (250 seats), Punjab Medical
College, Faisalabad (being re-inspected for seat allocation),
Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur (300 seats), Rawalpindi Medical
College, Rawalpindi (being re-inspected for seat allocation), Services
Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore (150 MBBS seats), Sargodha Medical
College, Sargodha (100 seats), Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar
Khan (100 seats), Nawaz Shairf Medical College, Gujrat (50 seats) and
Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Medical College, Lahore, (100 MBBS
seats per year). Dawn
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PU verifies another 53 degrees
Lahore: The Punjab University (PU) on Monday sent 53 degrees of parliamentarians
back to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) after verification. A
PU spokesman said that out of these 53 degrees, two were of senators,
16 of directly elected MNAs, three of MNAs elected against reserved
seats, 17 MPAs directly elected and 15 MPAs elected against reserved
seats of the Punjab Assembly. The spokesman further said the PU
had already returned 18 degrees to the HEC with the request to furnish
intermediate result cards and equivalence certificates. The PU
received a total 358 degrees out of which three were sent twice which
were already verified, he concluded.
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HEC calls VCs meeting to discuss degrees verification
Lahore: The Higher Education Commission has convened a meeting of
vice-chancellors of public sector universities across the country on
July 28 to discuss the issues of degrees verification and their
financial crunch. Sources privy to the developing situation said
the invitations extended to the vice chancellors by the HEC mentioned
the emergent meeting was being called on their pressing demands, however
the verification issue is being treated as "hidden" item of agenda. According
to the sources, the HEC authorities wanted to sensitize the VCs, of
those varsities involved in leaking confidential information regarding
fate of MPs degrees, of serious repercussions they might face because of
the rapidly changing scenario. It is further learnt that the
VCs would also be sensitized about the situation emerging after the
efforts made to involve the Election Commission and the Federal Ministry
of Education in the verification process parallel to the HEC. The
EC's demand to send a questionnaire to all the universities to answer
three questions before giving a decision on fake degrees has already
caused concern in the HEC authorities. Reportedly, the EC had asked the
HEC to obtain information such as the basis on which any degree was
determined to be fake or genuine, naming the signing authority and the
name of the respective college. The move is being seen as a delaying
tactics. Similarly, heated debate has started after Federal
Minister of Education Sardar Aseff Ahmad Ali issued statement a couple
of days ago, claiming the report on the MPs' degrees could be reviewed
again as "It was not the Higher Education Commission's domain to verify
the degrees." It is learnt that the VCs would be asked to share
details in case any university was pressurised by the MPs, to take it up
with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who had assured of his support
to the HEC in the verification process. The sources said the
financial constraints is also an important agenda item, as the VCs had
been highlighting the same, after the HEC faced Rs 7 billion cut in its
budget this year. The HEC's funding for 2010-2011 has been reduced to
Rs 15.7 billion from Rs 22.5 billion in 2009-2010. The VCs have been
highlighting the likely deficit their universities might face from the
recently enhanced government servants salaries and pension as well as
other allowances and expected low funding from the HEC because of the
financial cut. According to reports, the Punjab University is
likely to meet huge deficit of Rs 760 million, University of Engineering
& Technology Lahore a deficit of Rs 166 million and University of
Veterinary & Animal Sciences Lahore of Rs74 million. It is
learnt that the upcoming meeting at the HEC would discuss various
possibilities of revenue generation by the universities, to minimize the
"worst effects" of cut in the HEC budget.
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ACCA student murdered
Lahore: A 25-year-old student of ACCA was strangled by some
unidentified killer/s in the Sattukatla police area on Monday. The
deceased was identified as Abdul Jabbar, the son of Zulfiqar Ahmad.
Police suspected that the victim might have been murdered by his some
unidentified college fellows over some dispute. Satukatla SHO Inspector
Qamar Abbas said that the deceased's brother, a student of a local
college, had stated that when he returned home from his college, the
body of Jabbar was lying in his room. "From his apparent condition, it
seemed the deceased was severely tortured before his murder," the
inspector added. According to the deceased's brother, Jabbar had
been tense for the last few days and, when asked, he had replied that
some of his fellows were annoyed over some issue at the college. The
body was shifted to the Jinnah Hospital morgue for autopsy. Police have
registered a case against unidentified accused with no arrest till
filing of this report. The news
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