LAHORE, June 26: The Punjab government on Thursday issued a notification exempting the King Edward Medical College and Fatima Jinnah Medical College from affiliation with the University of Health Sciences “for the time being”.

Punjab Advocate General Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi furnished a full bench of the Lahore High Court with a copy of the notification: “In exercise of powers conferred upon him under proviso to Sub-Section 1 of the Section 5 of University of Health Sciences Ordinance 2002, the governor of Punjab is pleased to exclude the King Edward Medical College and Fatima Jinnah Medical College for the time being from the extent and scope of the jurisdiction of UHS Lahore”.

The bench was hearing petitions of the students of Allama Iqbal Medical College and other dental colleges against their compulsory affiliation with the UHS.

As contended by the petitioners, the PU had cancelled the affiliation of their colleges with itself after the issuance of a letter by the UHS vice-chancellor that all medical colleges in Punjab were being affiliated with the UHS and the PU would not grant affiliation to any other institution in future.

After receiving the notification, the court directed Punjab University counsel Dr Basit to seek instructions as to what would be the status of de’Montmorency Dental College (also a petitioner to this case), which had claimed that 80 per cent of its teaching was conducted on the premises of KEMC under the same dean Dr Mumtaz Hassan. According to the dental college, as the KEMC had been exempted from affiliation with the UHS, so should it be.