April 15, 2006	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 16, 1427

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MULTAN, April 14: A number of students of the Nishter Medical College on Friday staged a demonstration in protest against the results of MBBS third and final years and BDS, urging the University of Health Sciences to revise them.

The Pakistan Medical Association, Multan chapter, also joined the dissenting voices seeking the authorities concerned to take notice of the alleged discrimination being meted out to the students of NMC and Quaid-i-Azam Medical College. They demanded that NMC should be given the status of university.

At a press conference, PMA Multan president Dr Salman Waris said: “Some 140 students of NMC have been declared fail by the UHS, yielding only 45.9 per cent result in third year. Of them, 130 failed only in theoretical paper, though they had passed practical and viva voce.”

The PMA president said some 107 students were declared fail in one subject, surgery, and 98 of them only in theory in 55 per cent final year result.

Dr Waris complained that not a single student passed diploma examinations during the last three examinations while the medical colleges of Lahore and Rawalpindi showed 80 to 90 per cent results.

In BDS examinations, only 21 students out of the 57 passed first professional, 23 out of the 54 passed third professional, and only 18 out of the 38 cleared second professional examinations, he added.

“The NMC may be affiliated with Bahauddin Zakariya University for the time that may be required for completion of process to give NMC a university status,” said PMA Multan finance secretary Dr Shahid Rao.

“We will tender strong protests if our demands were not met,” said PMA president. “Doctors will perform duties while wearing black armbands on Monday as mark of protest,” he added.

Giving comparative details of results issued by the UHS, he said the AIMC showed 92 per cent pass result, RMC (74 per cent), PMC (69 per cent), QMC (61 per cent) and NMC (45.9 per cent).

Meanwhile, NMC students have sent a letter to the UHS vice-chancellor and its copies to the president, Punjab governor, chief minister and Chairman Board of Governors Prof Mahmood Ahmad Chaudhry.

They said unexpectedly low percentage of successful candidates in this particular examination had caused unrest among the students and teachers concerned, and internal examiners of related subjects also considered such a low pass percentage as impossible.

“It is possible there might be some mistake in decoding of answer books, or some error in compiling procedures (posting, tabulation, calculation). It is also possible that internal assessment marks were not added,” they said.

“Mistakes occurred in the last two professional examinations and it is requested that the review of result sheets and other papers like answer books, viva award lists, internal assessment lists relating to NMC centre be done at the earliest to allay the students’ worries.”