KARACHI, June 14: The aggrieved students of the Sindh Medical College on Saturday once again set a 48-hour deadline, reiterating their demand for restoration of their admissions.

They urged the government to fulfil its commitment regarding holding of examinations of the left-over students.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, the representatives of the students, said if the government failed to issue a notification in favour of them by 4 pm on Monday, they would resort to a hunger strike till death.

The admissions of the students were disputed by the SMC authorities during the last six months or more.

An emotional-charged group of affected students, briefed the newsmen about their plight, saying although promises were made by the legislators, ministers, and the chief minister, there was no solution in sight.

A student who had attended a meeting at the CM House on May 26 stated that the chief minister during his meeting with a group of SMC students had stated in the presence of provincial ministers, that students deserved sympathies.

He said that the chief minister had stated that he was going to restore the admissions of the fourth and the final year students, who possessed genuine educational documents, on a priority basis, while the issue of second and third year students would also be addressed in due course of time.

About 105 cases of bogus admissions were reportedly detected either by the college principal or by a government team. The authorities claimed that rules were violated during admissions while the students say that they had paid huge amounts to the college staff for being admitted on “self-finance seats”.

Interestingly, the students took different MBBS examinations of the university uninterruptedly till 2002.

The affected students and their representatives said that they did not understand why, after CM’s assurances, their cases were not being considered and the government was still unmoved.

“In view of a prolonged mental and physical stress due to poorly conceived actions of the college authorities, we are already on the verge of collapse, but it seems that either government was dilly-dallying in the matter or was under the influence of the vested interest, they said.

They referred to a statement issued by the Sindh governor after his meeting with a PMA delegation and stated that observations of the governor were solely based on the presentation made by the members of the delegation. “Instead of accepting the viewpoint of the PMA, the governor should have given us a chance to clarify our position,” said one of the speakers, urging the governor to give the students an audience, otherwise the issue would get complicated.

“We do not support those who possessed fake educational certificates but those who were issued university enrolment, college ID card, university admit card and who were allowed to appear in the examinations repeatedly be treated humanly,” said a student.

Later, a number of SMC students held a demonstration outside the KPC.