ISLAMABAD, Dec 16: The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned for Jan 18 an appeal of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) concerning affiliation of the Bhutta Medical College (BMC), Faisalabad.

The PMDC had challenged the Sindh High Court order before the Supreme Court in which the high court had directed the students to approach the BMC for appearing in professional examination.

In its appeal, the PMDC stated that issuance of no objection certificates to students to get admission to a non-recognized college would defeat the very objective of the council and would open a flood gate for non-recognized colleges to mint money by facilitating students who failed to get admission on merit.

The University of Sindh, Jamshoro, had granted temporary affiliation to the BMC and had allowed it to conduct classes for first professional from the academic session of 1997-98 with a direction to fulfil necessary criteria in future.

The criteria included payment of one million rupees as fresh affiliation fee to start first professional classes, appointment of teachers on permanent basis, invitation to the PMDC to visit the college facilities, introduction of latest books and journals of international standard in the library, setting up of a multi-media resource centre and affiliation with the district headquarters hospital of Faisalabad for teaching purpose, besides others.

Later, the university withdrew its affiliation after the college authorities failed to fulfil criteria. Students of the college made representations to different quarters against the de-affiliation process but to no avail.

A petition was instituted in the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, challenging the de-affiliation of the college. However, during the pendency of the petition, the university withdrew its decision of de-affiliation.

Resultantly, the high court dismissed the petition on May 2002, with a direction to the students to approach the medical college for appearing in the examinations. Interestingly, the university de-affiliated the college again just before the examination while its students could not be accommodated in other medical colleges.

The PMDC in its appeal stated that affiliation of a college by a university did not automatically mean its recognition by the council. It also stated that the council was helpless in implementing the high court's orders as these students were admitted to a non-registered medical college, which was also sealed by the authorities.

Hashmat Habib advocate represented the PMDC, while Zulfikar Bhutta appeared on behalf of the BMC. The bench hearing the matter comprised Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi.