LAHORE, Dec 25: The University of Health Sciences has asked five private medical colleges to wind up for their operations are in contravention of Section 37 (1) of the UHS Ordinance, 2002.

The medical colleges - University of Lahore's College of Medicine and Dentistry (CMD); Al-Huda Medical College, Lahore; Independent Medical College, Faisalabad; Bhutta Medical College, Faisalabad; and M.A. Jinnah Medical College, Sargodha.

The UHS registrar has sent warning letters to the principals of each 'illegal' campus.

Each letter says:"Your medical college is not affiliated with the UHS, which is a mandatory requirement under section 37 (1) of the UHS Ordinance 2002. You are, therefore, directed to close down the medical college under intimation to the university".

A UHS official told Dawn that these medical colleges have kept their students in dark and continued to hoodwink them by making false promises regarding their recognition and affiliation status.

He said a private university's medical college principal had told the UHS that despite the fact that they had conducted several MBBS and BDS examinations within the university, they call all students 'old first-year students'.

Similarly, it is learnt, three medical and dental colleges in Sindh, NWFP and Islamabad are also alluring students to get admissions to pursue their professional studies.

As the PMDC has yet not registered any of the nine such colleges in Punjab, NWFP, Sindh and Islamabad, their students are not eligible to appear for any examination.

The unregistered colleges are: Ghulam Muhammad Mehr Medical College, Sukkur (public sector); Jinnah Medical College, Peshawar; and Abbotabad International Medical College. While in Islamabad, the Islamabad Medical and Dental College (IMDC) has been operating for the last eight years.

After recognizing the real situation of the validity of their studies, a number of students and their parents are contacting the UHS and the Lahore High Court for redressal of their grievances.

Some students of the University of Lahore's CMD told Dawn that they had paid hundreds of thousands of rupees in fees during the last two years but were still standing nowhere.

They said the Punjab governor/Chancellor should take notice of the situation as so many students had been betrayed by the university being 'patronized' by him.

When contacted, PMDC secretary Sohail Karim Hashmi said the students studying in these un-recognized medical and dental colleges were not council's responsibility. He said that it was a case of sheer neglect on the part of students and their parents who did not bother to check whether the university was offering recognized medical and dental education.

It is learnt that the Lahore High Court, in a case concerning University of Lahore's CMD, has asked the UHS to find ways to help the 'defrauded' students.

When contacted, UHS board of governors chairman Prof Dr Mahmood Ahmad Chaudhry said the university would call all students' cases one by one and assess them. "The UHS will do everything for them within the constraints of the law," he added.