MULTAN, Sept 21: The Bahauddin Zakariya University has not so far cancelled the syndicate membership of the principal of the Nishtar Medical College despite its affiliation with the University of Health Sciences.

The UHS had conducted the third professional examination of the Nishtar Medical College and recently declared the result.

Dr Shabbir Nasir was a member of the BZU syndicate in his capacity as principal of the NMC. Dr Nasir is still invited to the BZU syndicate meetings despite the fact that now the NMC has been affiliated with the UHS.

Quoting rules, sources said that NMC principal now could not sit in the syndicate meetings. They said that the syndicate had a seat reserved for a member of the Punjab Assembly, nominated by the PA speaker. The MPA’s membership automatically stood cancelled the assembly ceased to exist. “There is no need of formal intimation by the assembly secretariat in this regard,” they added.

According to sources, the NMC principal used his position in the syndicate to get undue favours from the university management. First he managed to get one of his close relatives appointed in the engineering college of the university as lecturer. Later, he got sanctioned one year leave for him from the university.

They said it was ironical that on the one hand the university was facing enormous problems to get accreditation from the Pakistan Engineering Council while on the other its faculty was generously being given long leaves.

When contacted registrar and secretary of the university syndicate, Khursheed Khan, declined to comment on the situation.

Entrance test: Entrance test for the admission in the medical and dental colleges of the province was held here peacefully for the candidates belonging to former civil divisions of Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan.

The test was conducted by the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, while the Bahauddin Zakariya University provided the logistic and manpower support in Multan.

Venue for the test was the Engineering College of the BZU. At least 1,704 candidates had opted for the Multan centre and 10 out of them were reported to be absent on the day of test.

The Punjab governor was expected to make a ‘surprise’ visit of the centre and, therefore, the BZU management had prepared a helipad to welcome him. The local police highups and other administrative officials were seen standing alert on the test venue along with a heavy police contingent.

Though the governor did not turn up, the presence of too many authorities helped smooth holding of the test.

BZU vice-chancellor Dr Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry and registrar Khursheed Khan remained present at the centre.