LAHORE: Attorney General of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf Ali told the Lahore High Court on Friday the government could revisit its new admission policy for medical and dental colleges to protect the future of students.

During hearing of multiple petitions against the enforcement of 2016 admission regulations, the attorney general stated that the government could look into the whole policy afresh and its retrospective implementation.

He said the court should allow the University of Health Sciences to continue the admission process as the government was ready to address the grievance of the petitioners. Mr Ali said the government was fully conversant with the grievance of the students who were real stakeholder in the matter.

However, Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza extended stay against display of merit list by the UHS and directed the PMDC and the petitioners—students and colleges—to sit with the attorney general to reach an amicable solution to the matter. The judge deferred the hearing till Dec 5.

Barrister Ali Zafar and Advocate Munawar Salam, from the petitioners’ side, accepted the court’s proposal and expressed their hope that the dispute on the policy’s enforcement would be resolved out of court.

On previous hearing, the judge had restrained the UHS from displaying open merit list for admissions to MBBS/BDS. The judge also suspended the 2016 central admission policy enforced on Oct 27.

Pensioners’ plight: The Lahore High Court chief justice on Friday chided the finance department and the accountant general of Punjab for asking pensioners for further verification to receive arrears (of their pension).

Representing the pensioners of 85-year age slab, Advocate Safdar Shaheen Pirzada told the court that the government was bound, under a previous judicial order, to disburse arrears of Rs9 billion among the pensioners by Dec 31. He said not a single penny had been paid to the pensioners yet.

Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah expressed dismay when the counsel for the Accountant General office stated that the pensioners had not applied for the arrears so far. The lawyer said the office would first verify the cases of the pensioners following their applications.

The chief justice observed as to why the pensioners were required to file separate applications to claim their arrears when the AG office maintains their complete record.

Justice Shah directed the accountant general and finance department to submit complete details of the pensioners along with their computerised record on next hearing.

The departments were also ordered to submit mode of payment of the arrears to the pensioners.

Published in Dawn December 3rd, 2016