MULTAN, April 20: Students of the Nishter Medical College and the local chapter of Pakistan Medical Association jointly observed token hunger strike on Thursday against the University of Health Sciences for, what they alleged, its bias against south Punjab.

A hunger strike camp, set up on the college premises, was attended by students and doctors to express their resentment against the results announced recently by the UHS of the MBBS second professional and the BDS last professional examinations.

The protesters said some 140 students of the college had been declared fail in the second professional examination by the UHS. Of the failed students, 130 were declared fail in theory while they had passed practical and viva voce.

Similarly, 107 students of the MBBS final professional had been declared fail in surgery and 98 of them in theory.

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

The PMA office-bearers said not a single student had passed diploma in the last three examinations while the medical colleges of Lahore and Rawalpindi were showing 80 to 90 per cent success ratio.

The protesters urged the president, prime minister, governor and chief minister to take notice of the “discrimination” being meted out to the students of Nishter and Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur. They demanded that the Nishter be given status of a university like the King Edward Medical College.

“In the meanwhile, the Nishter and the Quaid colleges be re-affiliated to Bahauddin Zakariya University and Islamia University, respectively,” they stressed.