LAHORE, June 26: Abid Hassan Manto, amicus curiae to the case against medical colleges’ compulsory affiliation with the University of Health Sciences, told the LHC on Thursday that the UHS vice-chancellor was not authorized to issue affiliation orders, as even the existence of that university was yet to be determined.

Mr Manto submitted to the full bench headed by Justice Jilani that the UHS Ordinance did not specify the exact date of university’s establishment.

“The impugned statute says that the university shall be established. In statutes of this kind either it is mentioned that the university has been created or a date is given for its creation. As there is doubt regarding the existence of UHS, its vice-chancellor cannot designate himself for issuing any order — including that of compulsory affiliation — prior to university’s creation,” he said, adding that the appointment of a chancellor was not sufficient to warrant the university’s creation.

The amicus curiae referred to the Punjab University Act 1882, saying that Section 2 of the act clearly specified the identity of PU and the date on which it was to come into force, but this was not the case with UHS.

He assailed the UHS Ordinance on grounds that it was full of contradictions and had created too many authorities that were not yet operational. Mr Manto maintained that the UHS Ordinance had not been drafted in a manner usually required for statutes related to the creation of universities.

He argued that numerous authorities like syndicate, chancellor, vice-chancellor, registrar, controller of examination, board of governors, execution committee and academic council were mentioned in the ordinance, but it was not clear as to whether any of these authorities had been established and made functional or not.

According to him, even if it was supposed that the UHS had come into existence, its vice-chancellor could not issue the directive for compulsory affiliation on his own, since the UHS Ordinance required him to obtain prior approval of the board of governors.

When asked by the court as to who was authorized to issue orders for affiliation, he replied that to the best of his understanding of the impugned statue it was the syndicate, which was yet to be appointed.

The counsel further submitted that even the emergency powers of vice-chancellor mentioned in the UHS Ordinance did not authorize him to deal with the matter of affiliation.

He maintained that affiliation was to be voluntary and under the ordinance in question, medical colleges were to apply to the UHS for it. The affiliation committee of UHS would process the case and present it to the syndicate that would take the final decision in this regard.

While touching on the anomalies allegedly existing in the UHS Ordinance, Mr Manto argued that under Section 37 of the UHS Ordinance, all medical institutions in Punjab were to be automatically affiliated with the university within a period notified by the authorities concerned, but Section 5(2) clearly stated that the UHS might extend its privileges including affiliation to any medical college with the latter’s consent. “The affiliation is a privilege and cannot be thrust upon the students of a medical college,” he claimed while adding that the UHS Ordinance did not end the degree-awarding power of other universities including the PU.

Students had the right to chose one of the two universities for affiliation, he said. “In matters of professional careers, the choice of citizens overrides everything else.” He added that if medical students were given a degree that they did not want, it would amount to usurpation of their fundamental rights.

The proceedings will resume on Friday (today).