LAHORE, Oct 17: The Punjab government has set a precedent by allowing four students of Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, to change their examination body in violation of Supreme Court directions in this regard.

Official sources said on Tuesday that Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi had allowed the Final Year students to switch over from the University of Health Sciences (UHS) to the King Edward Medical University (KEMU) on their request.

They said the students had been given the permission as they belonged to “well-connected” families.

They said under the University Grants Commission (now the Higher Education Commission) rules, a student could not change examination body with which its institution was affiliated.

In case one is allowed to do so, the question of issuance of degree arises.

“The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council can’t recognise a degree issued by the KEMU to such students,” they said.

They said the students had changed their examination body considering the KEMU a soft one and their full chances of getting through the final examination. The students had passed their earlier examinations conducted by the UHS when their institution was affiliated with it in 2002.

However, one of the students claimed in his request to the chief minister that throughout his career, he obtained above 70 per cent marks and in his final examination of surgery, he repeatedly failed because the answer books had been “misappropriated”.

Sources said the Punjab government’s directive was in conflict with the provisions of the UHS Ordinance as well as the judgment of the Lahore High Court approved by the Supreme Court in this respect.

The LHC had already rejected a case for change of examination body from the UHS to the Punjab University, they said, and added that a specific authority had been nominated under the UHS Ordinance to consider the requests for change of examination body.

A UHS spokesman said the AIMC students had switched over to the KEMU in violation of rules and the UHS did not endorse it. When asked whether the UHS would issue them degree, he said unless they did not appear in its examination it was not possible under the rules.

Punjab health secretary Javed Malik was not available for comments.

Besides Allama Iqbal Medical College, Nishtar Medical College, Multan, Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, Quaid-i-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi Medical College, Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore, Lahore Medical and Dental College, Fatima Memorial Hospital College of Medicine and Dentistry, Lahore, Wah Medical College, de’Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore, Nishter Medical College’s Dental Section, Lahore Medical and Dental College, FMH College of Medicine and Dentistry and Margalla Institute of Health Sciences are the other affiliated institutions of UHS. —Zulqernain Tahir