LAHORE: Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday restrained the University of Health Sciences (UHS) from displaying open merit list for MBBS and BDS admissions until tomorrow (December 2).
The court also restrained private medical and dental colleges from carrying out further admissions and directed them to submit record.
The court issued notice to the attorney general for assistance and sought comments from the provincial government on the petitions challenging the admission policy 2016 promulgated by the federal government.
Petitioners’ counsel Ashfaq Ahmad Malik said that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) issued a notification on October 27, which had done away with SAT-II examination for admissions to medical colleges. He submitted that the petitioners were desirous of seeking admissions to private medical colleges that offered admissions on the basis of NUMS entrance test or SAT-II test.
He said that the petitioners underwent the SAT-II test and result was announced on October 27 – the same day when the PMDC issued the “impugned notification depriving the petitioners of seeking admission to medical colleges”. He asserted that the impugned policy of the government was unconstitutional and discriminatory in nature.
He requested the court to declare the notification null and void.
PMDC council’s in reply said that all stakeholders including representatives from private medical colleges were part of the consultation process initiated in the month of April this year. He submitted that some colleges had violated even the previous rules of 2013 by inviting admissions before October 31.
On a court query about any action taken against colleges for alleged violation of the rules, the PMDC’s counsel said that action had been taken and proceedings were in progress.
