LAHORE, May 8: The Lahore High Court on Thursday directed the provincial government to allow admissions to medical colleges against the 78 seats reserved for students from under-developed areas within two weeks.

The division bench, comprising Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jilani and Bashir A. Mujahid, allowed the petitions of 18 candidates who had appeared in the entry test for medical colleges from Bahawalpur, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Attock and other under-developed areas of Punjab, for admission against the special quota of seats.

The bench termed it unfortunate that despite a clear verdict of the SC, the Punjab health department had only partially complied with the judgment, and even tried to get it reviewed.

It further dismissed the argument of the state that petitioners belatedly moved the LHC, since the academic session had commenced. The bench observed that in the prospectus for the session 2002-03, it was clearly stated that admissions would be closed three months after the start of first academic year of MBBS, which started in March 2003.

The bench ordered that the 78-seat quota be filled according to the 1997-98 prospectus for admissions to medical colleges, which had allocated seats in medical colleges for under-developed areas as follows:

Twenty-two seats in the Rawalpindi Medical College: six each for Chakwal and Attock, four each for Jhelum and Murree and two for Gujjar Khan; 18 in the Punjab Medical College: four each for Khushab, Mianwali and Bhakkar and six for Jhang; 20 in the Nishtar Medical College: four each for Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzzaffargarh and Layyah and two each for the tribal areas of DG Khan and Rajanpur and 18 in the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College: six each for Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalnagar.

The petitioners’ counsel, Mian Abbas, argued before the court that the SC in its judgment in Attiya Bibi Case had declared all reserved quotas in medical colleges illegal except those for disabled persons, students domiciled in FATA and under-developed districts and the AJK as well as the Afghan refugees and students from abroad. According to the counsel, the reserved quota for students from under-developed areas was to remain in force for seven years.

The Punjab government restored all these quotas except that for students from backward areas. The chairman of the admission board for medical colleges wrote a letter to the provincial health secretary in April 2002, reminding him of the quota but to no avail, the counsel alleged.

Punjab Advocate General Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi argued that the claim of petitioners that they belonged to under-developed areas was false. The SC did not identify any such areas in its judgment and had left it to the discretion of the Punjab government to identify socially and academically backward areas after a thorough exercise, he added. Only when such an exercise was carried out by the government, could the petitioners claim admission to the medical colleges, the AG submitted.— Reporter