19 May 2004	Wednesday	28 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

KARACHI, May 18: The Sindh High Court directed the provincial government on Tuesday to abolish all reserved seats in medical colleges except those allocated to the handicapped.

A full bench comprising Justices Shabbir Ahmed, Ghulam Rabbani and Khilji Arif Hussain gave the direction while dismissing a number of writ petitions moved by over 40 former students of the Sindh Medical College, who were expelled for having obtained admission in violation of merit and on the basis of bogus documents. The bench found the petitions bereft 'of merit on law and facts' and liable to be dismissed.

The petitions were moved early last year by students at various stages of the MBBS course. Two division benches returned divergent verdicts on them and they were referred to a three- member bench for resolving the conflict.

Advocates Raja Qureshi, M. Nawaz, M. Aqil and M. Hanif appeared for the petitioners and Additional Advocate-General Abbas Ali and Advocate M. Shoaib Ashraf for the respondent health department and the SMC.

The bench examined the petitioners' claims individually but observed that 'the facts contended by the petitioners with regard to their claim for admission are seriously disputed by the respondents'.

Even their eligibility for admission had been disputed. The controversy in its entirety revolved round questions of fact, and needed elaborate inquiry. Such exercise could not be undertaken by the court under its constitutional jurisdiction.

It held that the petitioners had failed to demonstrate that their admission was in accordance with the rules. "There is no concept of de facto admission by forced entry with the connivance of the college staff and their appearance in examinations", the bench observed while dealing with the argument that by putting in years of professional education, the petitioners had acquired some sort of right to complete their studies to save their careers.

About the argument that the petitioners would be 'deprived of the intellectual property acquired by them over the years', the bench observed that 'it is well settled that the jurisdiction of this court under Article 199 of the Constitution is discretionary and is declined in cases where it would work in aid of injustice or protect ill-gotten gains'.

Calling for the abolition of quotas in medical colleges, it referred to the 2001 Supreme Court judgment in Atiya Bibi case, which rejected all but one quota. Dealing with the cases of individual petitioners, the bench pointed out that Waheed Khan, Samiullah, Noshaba and Saifullah Khan were NWFP domiciled and their marks were short of 'the closing marks' of 827 obtained by the last student admitted on merit to the SMC in 1997-98 in his FSc pre-medical examination.

About petitioners Jehanzeb, Sajjad Ali Shah, Asadullah, Shandana Faiz and Sumera Baig, the bench noted that they were not Sindh-domiciled and claimed domicile of the NWFP and Islamabad. Petitioners Asma Javed and Aisha had obtained only 606 marks. Likewise, Mohammad Zahid, Zaryab Ali and Uzma Zahoor were short of 'the closing marks'.

Petitioner Saima Anwar obtained only 606 marks while Farrukh Sair secured 607 marks in the intermediate exam. Waghma Ismail, M. Afzal Khan, Amjad Ali and Yar Mohammad hold the domicile of the NWFP and Naila Ehsan, Jawad Ali, Nadia Farooq and Raheel Fazil obtained marks well below the benchmark.

Afsheen Rahman, Farooq Ahmed, Bushra Ismail, M. Imran, Bushra Zahoor, Salma Gul, Ghausia Kandahari, Aneela Rafiq, Kiran Fatima and Fauzia Ashraf were either domiciled in the NWFP or were short of the requisite marks.

One of the petitioners claimed to have got admission to a seat reserved for a foreign student. Petitioners who obtained admission in 1998-99 or thereafter did not appear in the entry test, the bench noted.

APPEALS REJECTED: An anti-terrorism appellate bench of the High Court of Sindh, comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, on Tuesday dismissed appeals filed by four convicts in a kidnapping for ransom case, adds APP.

The appeals were filed by Dr Syed Khalid Moin, former medical superintendent of the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, policeman Saleemuddin, Saleemullah Khan and Saleem Tanoli, who were sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court headed by Feroz Mehmood Bhatti.