KARACHI: Health dept sits on list as students suffer: Admission to medical colleges
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, Dec 24: The ordeal of students seeking admission to medical colleges did not end on Monday as the health department failed to put the final merit list on display. The Sindh chief secretary, Javed Ashraf Hussain, and the chief of the Governor Inspection Team, Brig A.R. Nasir, had earlier announced that the final merit list would be made public on Monday.
On Monday evening, Sindh Governor Mohammedmian Soomro approved a summary, based on the findings and recommendations of an inquiry committee headed by Brig A.R. Nasir, submitted to him by the chief secretary, official sources told Dawn.
According to well-placed sources, the summary sought the governor’s approval on the revised final merit list, action against 35 candidates found to be guilty of trying to tamper with the results, retaining of second entrance test and issuance of merit list on the basis of second test, registration of cases against all the culprits involved in irregularities, including IBA officials, and display of merit list on Dec 24.
However, Sindh Health Secretary Khalid Latif Chaudhry said that because he had received no directives from his highups he could not issue the admission schedule at present.
Talking to Dawn late Monday night, he said that the merit list would be displayed only after a meeting between the officials of his department with the governor.
“We have to apprise the governor of the developments that took place in his absence. We want to inform him how 35 cases of irregularities will affect the merit lists of the province.”
Answering a question, he said that the academic session had not been delayed. “We are well within schedule,” he observed.
The health secretary said: “Due to the hectic schedule of the governor during the next few days, we are not likely to see him any time soon. I therefore think that the list will be made public on Saturday.”
Earlier in the day, candidates seeking admission to the government-run medical colleges in the city turned up in their hundreds at the Dow Medical College to see the final merit list only to find that no merit list was on display. Most candidates were accompanied by their parents.
Students, mostly girls, started to gather around 8.45am. Except for an old, somewhat tattered merit list, which mocked at the students, no merit list was there.
One parent said that for the past five days they had been reading in the press that the final merit list would be announced on Dec 24. He said he had also read that the merit list would be made public after scrutiny of all answer scripts by a special committee, formed by the Sindh government. He wondered why no merit list had been put on display.
Another parent told Dawn around 11am that he had learned that the DMC principal had gone to the office of the health secretary and a final word in this regard was expected at 2pm.
Referring to the statements of a few government officials concerned, another parent said that he was shocked to see that there was no coordination between different government officials on the issue of admission to medical colleges and issuance of merit lists, particularly at a time when the students had become fed-up with the entire system and had suffered so much for no fault of theirs.
A few girl students, as well as their parents, saw a conspiracy behind the delay in the issuance of the merit list. “If the merit list is ready now, what is keeping the authorities from making it public?” they wondered.
Referring to their ordeal and bitter experiences a number of students expressed the view that the system of entrance test should be abolished from next year, as “it is designed to accommodate the less deserving students through foul play”.
“In order to make the entrance tests more transparent, at least their disproportionate weightage should be reduced,” they added.
Another parent said some unknown people had contacted his family on phone, asking him to pay around Rs400,000 for the admission of his daughter.
A parent, calling from the Malir Cant, said that because of lack of coordination between several educational institutions a large number of students would fail to get admission either to the University of Karachi or to other government colleges.
“The University of Karachi has given a new date for admission to Masters, Honours and B Pharmacy classes (Dec 28), but candidates will have to submit their original documents which will prevent them from getting admission to the medical colleges.”
It may be recalled that stundents have been suffering from Oct 28 when the first test was conducted by the IBA, only to be cancelled following detection of some foul play. The second test was held on Nov 15 and on Dec 13, a day before the final merit list was to be displayed, the health department announced the cancellation of the second test’s results. However, the next day the Sindh government revoked the health department’s decision, ordering a probe into the second test’s results and pledging that the second test would be retained and only those found guilty of irregularities would be eliminated from the merit list.
KARACHI, Dec 24: The ordeal of students seeking admission to medical colleges did not end on Monday as the health department failed to put the final merit list on display. The Sindh chief secretary, Javed Ashraf Hussain, and the chief of the Governor Inspection Team, Brig A.R. Nasir, had earlier announced that the final merit list would be made public on Monday.
