HYDERABAD, Aug 11: A transparent admission process in accordance to guidelines of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council was reiterated by Vice Chancellor, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS) Jamshoro, Prof Dr Naushad A. Sheikh. He reaffirmed his vow not to buckle under political or student pressure, on Saturday.

He warned professors and associate professors to remain regular in the Out-Patient Department (OPD) or else their cases will be referred to the Syndicate.

Concentration was being given to academic side to deliver a better lot of doctors he said and added integrated teaching system and biomedical ethics were introduced in a public sector university for the first time.

He focussed on the admission policy after the PMDC imposed penalty of Rs70 million for exceeding admissions under the Self-Financing Scheme.

Last year 116 admissions were given under the scheme in the LUMHS against 50 he said and held out an assurance to make process transparent at all costs. He said these 116 admissions were not given on merit.

He said six-member committee comprising Prof Amna Memon, Prof Rafiq Soomro, Prof Rafiq Memon, Dr Naeem Qureshi, Director Admissions Ejaz Suhag and Dr Qazi Ghulam Mustafa had been formed by the Syndicate to probe the matter and submit findings.

The committee was formed on instructions from the chancellor’s office to refer the matter to Syndicate for a decision he said and informed of hiring the services of a lawyer to fix the responsibility on delinquent officials but refrained from making comments due to the committee’s deliberation on the issue.

Advising parents not to fall prey to mafia or group for admissions through backdoor he categorically said that only 351 seats in different categories were open to merit with 100 in BDS with not a single addition to it as the PMDC had strongly reacted to admissions under Self-Financing Scheme. Six seats of Karachi on dental side had been distributed among different districts, he said.

The university, he said wanted to begin the classes a month before those in private sector for which it planned to issue admission forms from Aug 13 with date of submission latest by Aug 25 which may be extended. Admit cards will be issued on Sept 3 and entry test on Sept 9, said Prof Dr Naushad and added: “For the first time we are introducing integrated teaching system that is prevalent only in the US and the Agha Khan University.