July 06, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 20, 1428

LAHORE, July 5: Governor Khalid Maqbool has reversed a Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi’s decision to allow a student of the Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, to change his examination body in violation of rules and regulations.

Sources told Dawn on Thursday that the chief minister had allowed Fahad Ali, a final-year student of the AIMC, to change the examination body from University of Health Sciences (UHS) to King Edward Medical University (KEMU), on his request.

They said Mr Ali had appeared in the examination under the KEMU and subsequently passed the same.

However, in a letter issued by the Governor Secretariat to the vice-chancellors of the KEMU and UHS, the governor observed: “The action of the KEMU to allow Fahad Ali, a student of UHS-affiliated institution, to appear in the examination held by the KEMU without seeking approval from the university concerned is against the rules and regulations on the subject and the student will have to appear in the examination to be conducted by the UHS”.

A KEMU source said three other students of the AIMC had already appeared in Punjab University examination without seeking permission from their affiliated examination body (UHS).

“The students have proceeded abroad after obtaining the PU degrees,” he added. He said the students had been given permission by the Punjab government as they belonged to the families of `influential doctors’.

He said after the governor’s directive, there had been no ambiguity left regarding the matter, and in future no university would dare conduct examination of a student of other varsity without its permission.

Under the University Grants Commission (now Higher Education Commission) rules, a student cannot change its examination body with whom its institution is affiliated.

In case one is allowed to do so, the question of degree issuance by the institution concerned arises. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council does not recognise a degree issued by the KEMU to such students.

The source said the Punjab government’s permission to students was in conflict with the provisions of the UHS ordinance as well as the judgment of the Lahore High Court. He said the LHC had already rejected a case seeking change of examination body from the UHS to Punjab University and explained that a specific authority was usually nominated under the UHS ordinance to consider the requests for change of examination body.

Besides Allama Iqbal Medical College, Nishter 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, Wah Cantonment, de’ Montmorency College of Dentistry, Lahore, Nishter Medical College 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 while the King Edward Medical College was upgraded as university last year and was recognised by the PMDC a couple of months ago.