PESHAWAR, March 27: The Peshawar High Court, here on Thursday ruled that the students of medical colleges in the NWFP could be allowed migration to another medical college if vacant seats were available.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Ijazul Hassan accepted writ petitions of two students and directed the government and the principal of the Khyber Medical College, to allow migration to the students so that they could study in the KMC.

The petitions were filed by Zeeshan Khan, a third year student  at the Gomal Medical College, DI Khan, and Akber Khan of the Ayub Medical College, Abbotabad.

Advocate Abdul Rauf Rohaila appeared for the petitioners and argued that the refusal of the NWFP government and the KMC principal was against the provision contained in the prospectus of medical colleges, governing the admissions and migrations of the students.  He said that according to the prospectus, the sanctioned number of seats in the KMC was 234, whereas only 231 students had appeared for the recent MBBS, second professional examination, held in January.

Mr Rohaila stated that the respondents had wrongly claimed that there were no vacant seats in the college. He submitted that the refusal of the respondents was not supported by any cogent reason as both the petitioners fulfil the criterion for migration.   He said that there were four regular vacant seats in the KMC and the migration did not affect the sanctioned number of the seats.

The KMC administration objected to the arguments of the petitioner   and submitted that the seats were considered vacant not on the basis of the result but were to be reckoned on the basis of admissions granted to the students.