KARACHI, Feb 26: An altercation between administrative staff of the Sindh Medical College and the students, who are alleged to have taken illegal or fake admissions to the institution, led to the confession by the staff that they had accepted out-of-way heavy payments from the students.
Sources in the college said that the altercation on Tuesday followed a Sindh High Court ruling, dismissing a plea of the students against withholding of their first professional examination results, and their resultant inability to continue education.
On Monday, another bench of the SHC, through an interim order, had allowed a group of students to appear in the 3rd professional annual examinations at their own risk and cost.
The agitated students, according to the sources, created a scene at the college involving the administrative staff in the afternoon. The students were of the view that the college staff had accepted a big amount of money from each affected student and that either the amount be returned or the staff ensured continuation of their education.
The staff and students finally reached the principal’s office where, after an altercation, some of the staff members admitted “peculiar dealings” with the students. They revealed before the principal that there existed a group of people which acted on their own and formed a nexus to fetch and share millions of rupees from students for out-of-way admissions.
According to the recorded statement, the people involved in the alleged dirty business belonged to the students and the administrative sections of the college, enrolment and examination sections of the University of Karachi as well as the health department.
A source in the college said that a couple of staff had already moved to some other medical college or left the institution during the last one or two years, while one section officer, who had reportedly accepted the “admission booty” in foreign currency, had also moved out.
When contacted, SMC Principal Prof Akbar H. Soomro confirmed Tuesday’s development as well as minor injuries to some of his staff members. He said that some of the staffers had pleaded guilty of accepting money from the students.
He said that high-ups in the Sindh health department, which governs the medical colleges, had been informed about the development and it was likely that any further line of action would be coming within a couple of days.
There have been reports of fake admissions to the medical college against a payment of Rs4.5 to Rs7.5 lacs per admission.
After a threadbare examination, which involved the University of Karachi, the Sindh Medical College and the health department, a high-level committee had declared 38 students of session 2001, who had even appeared in theory and practical exams, “not bona fide” students.
About seven weeks ago, the SMC authorities, had detected another about 70 students who were aspiring to appear in exams but were short of documents.
Most of the students coming from various parts of the country had even failed to submit a valid matric or intermediate certificate.
After a verification process, it was confirmed that the students were not only below the mark but also did not appear in the entrance test, — a must for admission — said the sources.
In a report sent to the Sindh governor some two weeks ago, the Governor’s Inspection and Evaluation Team had proposed to prosecute the students, the college and university staff and all those involved.
The team recommended that degrees, if already awarded to some doctors of the SMC, be withdrawn while results and other credentials issued to other students also be declared null and void. The team stressed the need for taking remedial measures to check the malpractice which have reportedly been continuing in medical colleges since 1987.
Sources said that the role of college teachers was also criticized and they were held responsible for conniving. It were not one or two students, but 10 to 30 in each batch, which should not have been ignored by the teachers, they maintained.
Meanwhile, the governor’s inspection team has proposed scrutiny of admission proceedings of at least three years at other government- run medical colleges.
The team, which examined MBBS class admissions to the SMC during last some years, was of the view that cases of such unauthorised admissions could be unearthed in some other medical colleges.
The system of “illegal entry” of ineligible students to medical colleges has been a serious source of concern among meritorious students and it needed to be checked, said a source in the team.
It has been found that over 100 non-deserving students were allowed admissions to the SMC in different years in violation of prescribed merit lists, rules and entrance test system.
Interviews with students, parents and senior teachers of medical colleges indicated that the students were provided uninterrupted education, while those at the helm of affairs in the health department and the university kept mum over the academic fraud.
