KARACHI, Aug 1: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the vice-chancellor of the Dow University of Health Sciences, the registrar and the principal of the DUHS and others for Aug 7 on a petition filed against the rustication of a student from the university.

A division bench comprising Justice Musheer Alam and Justice Zia Pervez was hearing the petition filed by Muhammad Usman Tariq, MBBS final-year student of the Dow Medical College, who was rusticated for one year on July 21under the `Student Conduct Rule’ for participating in a protest demonstration against the increase in examination fee.

The DUHS administration had recently increased the examination fee of the Ist year MBBS from Rs2,100 to Rs2,500 causing severe unrest among the students.

Challenging the rustication, Usman submitted that the DMC students opposing the increase in exam fee started a peaceful protest as a majority of them belonged to the middle- and lower-middle class and could not afford the increased fee. A student delegation, including him, met the DUHS VC and submitted an application about the fee hike.

Applicant counsel Sarwer Muhammad Khan stated that on July 21, when the petitioner wanted to see the DMC principal, security guards allegedly manhandled him and threatened to kill him on the instructions of the VC and the principal.

After two days, the petitioner was rusticated by a memorandum issued by the DMC principal without giving him any notice, charge-sheet or a chance for personal hearing. He prayed the court to declare the rustication order as illegal.—PPI