LAHORE: Dozens of students of a private medical college located in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on Monday staged a demonstration against what they said death of a female peer under mysterious circumstances and accused the college owner and some teachers of creating ‘rigorous discipline’ on the campus.

The death of the student and the subsequent protest by her peers compelled the administration to accept the ‘charge-sheet’ and issue a notification to mollify the protesters.

Reports said the students gathered on a road, raised slogans, alleging that it was the fifth such incident that took place in the Avicenna Medical College during the last some years and the female student who died was under mental stress due to ‘humiliating’ behaviour of a teacher and the management.

There were some conflicting reports surrounding the death of the student as some of her fellows dubbed it suicide saying she took the extreme step when no one from the senior management took any step to provide her relief.

Private college admin amends rules to placate protesters

This situation, they said, was the result ‘toxic’ environment imposed by the college owner, ‘controversial’ policies of the institute and ‘rude’ behaviour of a few medical teachers, one of whom had history of [allegedly] harassing female students.

They accused Prof Masood Nizam Tabassum of ‘harassing’ the students and ‘misusing’ his authority.

There were reports that many students from other private medical colleges also joined the protest when an alleged audio recording of the Avicenna’s owner and some incidents went viral on social media.

A protester alleged that a female student died under mysterious circumstances as she had been under immense mental torture, a male student jumped out of the college building and two more did the same in a bid to end their lives. Another student told media that [retired army officer] chairman of the Avicenna Medical College, Abdul Waheed Sheikh, was running the college like a ‘military boarding school’.

She said the chairman used to hand down strict punishments to students and impose heavy fines over poor results in exams/tests, causing many of them to undergo psychological issues.

She said female students were made to sit on the floor in a very odd manner.

She said most of the students didn’t resist the policies as their parents had spent huge money on their ‘brighter’ future. The protesters wanted the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to take notice of the ‘wrongdoings’ in the college, particularly collection of money on the pretext of fines.

Meanwhile, the college management issued a notification, making an announcement of permanent changes in the ‘policies’ of the institute to provide relief to the students.

Issued by college chairman Abdul Waheed Sheikh, the notification stated that Prof Masood Nizam Tabassum shall not be involved in any sort of teaching and academic activities.

“Fine policy will be withdrawn, leave and attendance policy will be in accordance with that issued by the University of Health Sciences”, reads the notification.

It further said that the college administration shall ensure that no student will suffer from any type of psychological, financial and academic torture.

“A student committee shall be formed with the two representatives from every academic batch of the institute to discuss grievances and problems of the students on a monthly basis”, as per the notification.

There shall also be no compulsion on students regarding joining of British School of Excellence Programme as well as insurance policy, it said adding that the chairman called the students, heard them at length and announced that no action would be taken against any one for lodging protest against the college.

The notification is silent on investigation into the death of the girl.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2024