April 12, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1429

RAWALPINDI, April 11: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday observed that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) had no provision for changing the duration of MBBS programme.

The observation of Justice Syed Qalb-i-Hassan of the IHC came during the hearing of a writ petition filed by a student of Shifa College of Medicine.

Talking to Dawn, Ghufran Khursheed Imtiazi, the counsel for petitioner Aftab Aslam, a student of second professional MBBS, said the college had formulated a rule under which if any MBBS student failed to complete the course within seven years he cannot continue his education. However, the lawyer said, there was no such law prescribed by the PMDC which governed all public and private medical institutes. The petitioner moved the court against the college administration for not allowing him to take his second professional examination.

The court had sought the comments of respondents in the case - ministries of health, law; PMDC, Bahria University and Shifa College. On Friday, the university was directed to submit its comments through its director examinations on Monday. The hearing was adjourned till April 14.