LARKANA, Feb 26: The Shah Abdul Latif University finally declines to accept 42 candidates’ admission to M.Phill and Ph.D in Sindhi after having been sitting on their applications for about one and a half years.

Mohammed Ali Pathan and Ihsan Dansih who had applied for admission about one and a half years ago told Dawn on Tuesday that they received a letter on Feb 16 informing them that the university was unable to launch the M.Phil and Ph.D programmes because it did not meet criteria set by the Higher Education Commission.

The letter from Dr Adal Soomro, the chairman of the Department of Sindhi said: “We could not take off with M.Phill and Ph.D courses in Sindhi for the university could not meet the criterion set by the HEC. We are sorry for calling you and conducting the admission test on Jan 24,” he said.

Sources in the university disputed his claim saying Shah Latif University had recently received huge funds for the launch of the programmes but Dr Adal Soomro insisted that at the moment the university was not in a position to undertake the courses.

The HEC’s criteria made it mandatory for a university to have three Ph.D teachers in a department to kick off the M.Phill and Ph.D courses, while the university at present had only one Ph.D in a department, he clarified.

Besides, the advanced study research board of the university, which met on Feb 14, did not a give a go-ahead to the programmes, he said, adding that the candidates seeking admission to Political Science and Pakistan Studies, too, had to suffer.

But the candidates dismissed it as a lame excuse and said that at present ten guides were registered with the university for the purpose and there was no truth in its claim that it had no guides to undertake research courses in Sindhi.

PROTEST: The protest of doctors who qualified the tests conducted by the National Testing Services continued on the thirty-seventh day on Tuesday as they demonstrated outside the press club and set up a token hunger strike camp there, demanding appointment orders.