September 30, 2003	Tuesday	Sha’aban 3, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its judgment on the petition of medical college students, demanding that the newly-created University of Health Sciences (UHS), Lahore, should not be allowed to take their examinations and instead the Punjab university be assigned the responsibility.

The decision of the Supreme Court would affect about 5,000 students of medical colleges in the Punjab. The students have been opposing the government’s decision to affiliate medical colleges of the Punjab to the newly-established University of Health Sciences. They contend that the degree issued by Punjab university is internationally recognized whereas the UHS is not known anywhere.

The Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad, ignored the request of the counsel for the petitioner- students, that their case should be referred to some other bench, as one member of the bench was related to an important official of the University of Health Sciences.

Advocate Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari said he made the request for transfer of the case to another bench at the very outset of the proceeding, but the chief justice assured that justice would be done. He repeated the same request at the end of the proceeding.

Though the petitioners were only four in numbers, but hundreds of students from medical colleges from the Punjab were present in the courtroom when the matter was taken up on Monday. The counsel said the petitioners were representatives of all the students whose educational career was in jeopardy.

Advocate Hafiz Abdur Rehman Ansari contended that thousands of students were affected because of the discriminatory attitude of the government.

The counsel said the decision of exempting King Edward Medical College and Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore, from affiliation with the UHS, was highly discriminatory.