Pakistani student deported | Medical college & PMDC rules
Pakistani student deported without cogent reasons
London, May 30: A final year BBA student from Pakistan studying in a Newcastle
institution was forcibly deported from the UK early last week on the charge that
he had worked for more than the permitted hours. Those who come here on
student visa are allowed to work for only 20 hours a week and anyone found
violating the law in most cases is normally warned off with a reprimand but has
never before been deported in the fashion that the Pakistani student was
subjected to. The student in question was reportedly woken up by the
metropolitan police in the early hours of the day, told he was to be deported
because he had violated his visa work terms, forced to change in the presence of
the police and whisked to the airport and bundled on a Pakistan-bound flight.
Meanwhile, his roommates are said to have telephoned his family in
Pakistan which contacted the High Commission in London and the HC trying to
trace the boy approached the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which put it in
contact with the Home Office which is said to have stonewalled the query until
the student was put on board. On learning the sketchy details of the
case, we approached the HC which said its staff was still trying to find the
details of what had exactly prompted the UK authorities to deport the student on
such a flimsy charge. An HC official said that in the meanwhile it had
been successful in arranging for the student to appear in his final examination
from Pakistan. Sources who have been following the case closely
speculated that perhaps the UK authorities piqued by Pakistan's refusal to sign
an MoU allowing Britain to deport any Pakistani without assigning any reason
with Islamabad undertaking not to arrest and torture the deportee. And
as part of this retaliation campaign, they said, the Times published at about
this time two reports, one on May 21 and the other on May 23, which amounted to
media trial by association of the 10 students who are facing deportation
proceedings after having being cleared of charges of being involved in plotting
terrorist activities in the UK. Since the bail applications of all the
10 students are still pending before the court, the media in the civilised world
would normally avoid doing such 'judgmental' reports on such subjudice cases
lest it is mistaken to be an attempt to influence the courts, said one of the
lawyers handling their bail applications. Dawn
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Private medical college flouts PMDC rules
Islamabad: A private medical college closed on the orders of the chief
justice of Pakistan in 2006 and later granted recognition after a change in the
management of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), has once again
resorted to practices that had impelled the country's apex court to order its
closure. Established in the late 1990s, the Islamabad Medical and Dental
College (IMDC) had not been recognised by the PMDC till its closure in 2006;
however, after a change in the council's management, the institution was
revived, and with it, the induction of students also got underway.
Throughout the year 2008, the institution followed a transparent system
to win the confidence of PMDC; however, in 2009, fees were received from
numerous students before they even took the entry test, and a bogus merit list
was presented before the public. The college also inducted 16 more students than
the 50 authorised, thinking that the institution may not be closed once again.
This led to the institution's principal Dr. Qazi Muhammad Rizwan resigning in
protest over flouting of merit. Documents available show
that several students submitted their college dues for MBBS, well before the
entry tests conducted on October 26, 2008. According to PMDC rules and
regulations, the merit list is prepared on the basis of an entry test, which
carries 50% marks; other than that, marks obtained at the intermediate and
matriculation levels carry 40% and 10% weightage, respectively. Investigations
show that the IMDC violated the laid down criteria inducting students for the
2009 session. Talking to this correspondent, IMDC's Chairman Dr. Ghulam
Akbar Niazi said that it was his prerogative to give admission to any student
who fulfilled the PMDC criteria. When asked him whey there was a
formality of an entry test when he was using his own discretionary powers while
admitting students, Niazi gave a spin to the question and said, "No rule of the
PMDC has been violated." Well-placed sources conceded that over 400
students from all over Pakistan were subjected to the futile exercise of
appearing for an entry test against a fee of Rs2,000 each, when only those
students who had already been selected, got admissions. Niazi admitted having
taken advance fee for the entry test, "because the students' parents were
willing to pay it beforehand." A letter written by the principal of IMDC
to the chairman shows the former demanding the merit list of students, which was
never provided to him, leading to his resignation in protest. An
attendance sheet (dated May 7, 2009) of one of the classes of MBBS Part-I,
session 2009, shows that there are at least 66 students studying in the college
against its authorised strength of 50. Clarifying his position, Niazi said,
there were 10 extra students studying in the college. He said, he was authorised
to induct only 50 students, but had applied for 100 seats; therefore, as soon as
he gets permission to induct 100 students, he will admit another 40. He claimed
not having taken a single penny from the 10 extra students. When his attention
was drawn to documentary evidence showing that 54 students had paid their fees
while the amount has been refunded to three others, Niazi said, many students
have left the college and not a single student beyond 50 has been
admitted. Ironically, the fee being charged by the college varies between
Rs618,000 to Rs975,000. A few students have submitted their fee in the personal
accounts of the chairman and his son even though the college is the property of
a trust. When contacted, Dr. Qazi Muhammad Rizwan confirmed having
resigned in protest over flouting of merit and induction of students in excess
of the authorised strength. PMDC's registrar Dr. Nadeem Ahmad stated that
the regulatory body would not register more than 50 students and that the rest
of the students should go to the court against the IMDC. He said that if fees
have been taken before the entry test, then students should go to the court to
seek justice for the fraud committed with them by the college. He said, PMDC is
formulating rules to monitor the entry test system; it has been regularised in
Punjab and will soon be implemented in Islamabad too. The former
registrar of PMDC Dr. Sohail Karim Hashmi regretted that the practices, which
led the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice and order closure of
IMDC are once again being followed. Dr. Sohail is the one who had stood against
private medical colleges, winning a battle in the Supreme Court, leading to the
closure of IMDC and refund of fees to students. Hashmi said, the PMDC
management and owners of private colleges have made a nexus, and are
hand-in-glove with each other; that is why PMDC is not taking action against the
college. He commented that it was not merely a matter of one or 10 students, but
of tens of thousands of patients who will be placed at the mercy of these
professionally weak and untrained students when they practice medicine. The News
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Exam cheater sentenced to one-year probation
Rawalpindi: Civil judge Ahmed Masood Janjua on Friday handed down
one-year probation and Rs 2,000 fine to an examination cheating convict. Banni
police had arrested Irfanullah for cheating in the DAT Electronics Examination
six months ago. Meanwhile, civil judge Malik Azmatullah served a notice on the
Civil Lines' station house officer (SHO) for submission of a charge sheet
against police officials accused of raiding RDBA offices and torturing lawyers
on March 15. The court asked the SHO to appear before it today (Saturday) with
the charge sheet. Daily Times
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QAU faculty strike enters second week
Islamabad: The protest demonstrations by the teaching faculty of Quaid-i-Azam
University continued in the second week against the non-acceptance of their
demands of BPS Incentive Scheme, up gradation of hardship cases and for
regularization of the contractual faculty members. The faculty members have
been protesting on alternative days on the call of Academic Staff Association of
the universality since May 18. They have been demanding payment of incentives to
non-TTS faculty members, who did not qualify or opt for Tenure Track System
(TTS), without the condition of 25 per cent. They were of the view that the
entire faculty member should be treated equally and all non-TTS staff who
qualified under a formula approved by the Syndicate should be paid incentives
according to which a lecturer could be paid 3 to 4 extra salaries in a year on
the basis of his/her best performance. The second demand relates to
regularising the lecturers who despite going through the same procedure of tests
and interviews prescribed for regular recruits were appointed on the basis of
contract. The teachers objected that QAU rules have no provision for appointment
of teachers on contract in BPS category. The third demand of the teaching
faculty was to upgrade the stuck-up cases of lecturers to associate professors.
They argued that public sector universities including QAU had a history of
upgrading its staff. Recently, even QAU has given one scale higher to stuck
cases to non-teaching staff and many public sector universities have already
implemented the upgradation formula. Meanwhile, a meeting of nearly eight
different universities held at HEC where the representatives of the universities
agreed that the BPS Incentives scheme for the 25 per cent teaching faculty would
be implemented. According to the officials of the HEC the decision regarding the
BPS Incentive Scheme for 25 per cent. faculty members had been taken four
years ago by the Finance Ministry and HEC. They informed that it was not a new
scheme and already had been implemented in most of the universities. "It's a
performance-based incentive scheme which would be given only to those BPS
faculty members who shows high performance. It's not an allowance, which is
given equally to all. And how can the commission raise the salaries of the
teaching faculty against the decision of the Finance Ministry" they
insisted. The Nation
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Little graduates, BIG degrees
Rawalpindi: Parents were overwhelmed with pride when kindergarteners of
the City School, Satellite Town Nursery Branch, in maroon gowns entered the hall
for their graduation ceremony here on Friday. Holding their heads high
and filled with a sense of pride and achievement, the little graduates received
their degrees one by one. Some of them also expressed their feelings
while leaving the school. The whole atmosphere became gloomy when a group of
students presented the 'Goodbye Song'. Many book-reading activities were
organised during the academic session and 'Gold Star' badges were distributed
among students who have shown remarkable performance in the
term. Regional Academic Coordinator of the Northern Region Misbah
Khurshid praised Headmistress Maria Waqas, Senior Mistress Rumana Ahmed and
staff of the Satellite Town Nursery Branch for organising an excellent programme
to make the last day of students in the school memorable. She also commended
efforts of teachers and parents and hard work of students who excelled in
different fields. The News
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