LAHORE, Nov 25: A communications gap between the University of Health Sciences and the Islamabad Medical and Dental College (IMDC) seems to have delayed the grant of affiliation to the latter.

While senior UHS officials said the IMDC had not yet rectified the observations made by the affiliation committee, the college administration asserted that all the 17 observations — minor in nature — had been rectified and the relevant documents submitted on Sept 2, over two and a half months ago. The college sources claimed that the university had never approached the college administration for further rectification of the observations.

The UHS affiliation committee officials, on the other hand, said they were not bound to inform the college administration in writing about further rectification of the observations.

It may be mentioned that the IMDC had applied for affiliation with the UHS on Oct 25 last year. The university assigned the task of inspecting the college to its affiliation committee on Aug 20.

The committee, headed by Allama Iqbal Medical College/Jinnah Hospital principal Prof Syed Sibtul Hasnain, inspected the college on Aug 30.

After discussing the inspection findings and the answers received from the college at a meeting on Sept 24, the affiliation committee stated that the members were of the considered opinion that IMDC had the essential infrastructure to impart medical education.

The committee members recommended: “The IMDC may be granted affiliation for one year only to teach the MBBS and BDS first professional classes for the year 2003-04.”

The UHS syndicate took up the recommendations in its meeting on Oct 22 and surprisingly, referred the case back to the affiliation committee taking the plea that the college had not fulfilled the affiliation requirements. Reportedly, the syndicate had also objected to college’s lack of registration with the Pakistan Medical and Dental College (PMDC), which was a prerequisite for affiliation.

It may, however, be mentioned that the UHS Ordinance 2002 did not require of a private medical and dental college seeking affiliation to obtain PMDC registration. The PMDC Ordinance 1962 also did not allow the council to inspect a medical college.

The syndicate members told Dawn that the affiliation committee had presented the IMDC case half-baked. They also wondered how the case had become an agenda item when it did not fulfil all the basic requirements.

The syndicate again took up the IMDC case on Nov 19 and stuck to its earlier decision that the case would be processed only after submission of a formal report by the affiliation committee. The syndicate stated that the IMDC affiliation case was referred back to the affiliation committee, which had not yet submitted its report.

It was learnt that the UHS had also accepted the request of IMDC Board of Governors chairman Aslam Shami and invited him to the Nov 19 syndicate meeting as an observer when the agenda item concerning the college was to be discussed.

However, the syndicate did not call Mr Shami to the meeting.

When contacted, a senior affiliation committee official said the committee had submitted its report along with IMDC’s answers regarding observations, which the syndicate did not accept as valid.

Answering a question, he said the IMDC affiliation case would only be processed when the college administration cleared all observations. He also said the affiliation committee was only bound to inform the university administration in writing regarding further observations and not the college.

Another official said the affiliation committee would hold a meeting after Eid and discuss its original observations as well as syndicate’s comments before taking the final decision. The decision will then be submitted to the syndicate, he added.

Sources claimed that another issue surfaced in the syndicate meeting when the registrar came up with a representation made by the IMDC BoG chairman against a syndicate member for his bias against the college.

The chairman stated that the college had initiated contempt proceedings against syndicate member Dr Tariq Siddiqui when he was serving as vice-chancellor of the Quaid-i-Azam University, requesting that he might not be invited to the syndicate proceedings on college’s affiliation case.

When contacted, the UHS registrar said the representation had been discussed by the syndicate but the decision would only be communicated after the signing of syndicate meeting minutes.

IMDC’s BoG chairman, Aslam Shami, said the college had fulfilled all requirements of the affiliation committee well in time, and attributed all delays to the affiliation committee and the university syndicate. He said the delay was jeopardizing the future of college students.

According to reliable sources, Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had also taken notice of the inordinate delay in deciding the affiliation case. He hoped the university would decide the case on merit within seven days.