LAHORE, June 24: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday questioned the administrative authority of University of Health Sciences vice-chancellor to issuing a letter for compulsory retrospective affiliation of all medical colleges of Punjab with the UHS.
The full bench, headed by Justice Tassadaq Hussain Jilani, while taking up the petitions of Allama Iqbal Medical College, Punjab Dental Medical College and de’Montmorency Dental College students, raised a legal proposition before the two sides as to whether the colleges could be affiliated with the UHS with retrospective effect under the Pakistan Medical Dental Council Ordinance 1962, especially at a stage when some of the students were in the final stage of their professional degrees.
The fourth-year students of AIMC had claimed that they were already registered with the Punjab University, which had conducted their previous professional examinations, and they were not bound to be examined by the UHS following compulsory affiliation of the AIMC with it. Only the first-year students to be admitted later this year could be asked to appear in the examinations under the auspices of UHS.
The court invited the two sides to make arguments on Wednesday on the proposition as to whether this action of the vice-chancellor met the test of equity and standards of reason set by the Supreme Court.
The bench members further expressed interest in knowing the extent to which the petitioners could exercise their right to be examined only by the Punjab University even after AIMC’s affiliation with the UHS.
Besides, the two sides would also respond to the proposition as to whether the provisions of UHS Ordinance 2002 regarding compulsory retrospective affiliation of all the medical colleges of Punjab with the UHS were violative of the 1973 constitution and the Pakistan Medical Dental Council Ordinance 1962.
The Punjab advocate-general was directed to furnish a list of all those medical colleges that were exempted from compulsory affiliation with the UHS.
The court appointed Abid Hassan Manto and Mansoor Ali Shah as amicus curiae for the proceedings on Wednesday.
Earlier, in his arguments, the petitioner’s counsel, Aitzaz Ahsan, submitted that on Sept 28, 2002, the provincial government promulgated the UHS Ordinance 2002 envisaging the affiliation of all medical colleges within its geographical boundaries with the UHS. He claimed that to the surprise of everyone, the UHS obtained recognition from the PMDC on the same day it applied for it.
He alleged that the management of UHS was trying desperately to get itself recognised by the federal government and even if it succeeded in doing so, the fact that the UHS was not an internationally-recognised institution would still hold true.
“The recognition of an institution can only be granted by the federal government and not the PMDC,” Mr Ahsan contended with regard to the recognition process, adding that unlike the Punjab University, the UHS was not recognised worldwide. He argued that the UHS recognition by the PMDC did not amount to international recognition.
To a court query, he claimed that no teaching facilities currently existed in the UHS as no senior professor was willing to teach there.
The counsel pointed out that the UHS Ordinance 2002 and the letter of UHS vice-chancellor for compulsory affiliation of all institutions with the UHS were prospective in nature and did not affect the existing affiliation of the AIMC with the Punjab University.
As claimed by the petitioners, the PMDC ordinance required a procedure for recognising an institution, which was governed by certain rules and regulations that every applicant for recognition must go through.