Only half of the students were lucky enough to get the passport to examination being conducted by the University of Karachi, while the remaining students would have to collect the cards from the Dow Medical College and the Sindh Medical College only a few hours before the commencement of the examinations on Monday, said the medical students late in the night.
Sources at the university and in medical colleges said that a controversy had developed between the colleges and the KU on the date of commencement of first professional MBBS (part-A) examination. The colleges wanted to get the exam dates extended, but the university was adamant on holding the exam as per the schedule given earlier.
It was learnt that only twenty days ago the university prepared the enrolment cards for the students admitted last year. As a routine matter, students have to mention their enrolment numbers issued by the university in the examination forms.
Interestingly, the enrolment cards were delivered to college authorities only a couple of days ago and then the examination forms were processed by the varsity examination department. The admit cards of students whose cases of enrolment had been cleared were readied on Friday and colleges were asked to collect it the same day. But they failed to do so and resorted to collect the admit cards in the afternoon on Saturday, said a examination department official of the university.
College sources said that the process of enrolment was delayed because the college authorities consumed much time in the scrutiny of admission forms in order to avoid embarrassment as last year the university had declared a number of admissions illegal due to alleged irregularities.
The colleges also accused the university of non-conducive attitude towards them. On the other hand, the university staff claimed that they did not want to hand over the enrolment cards or admit cards to persons other than college principals or any of the staff authorized by them. They said that it was not taken seriously and only after intervention of the controller of examinations the colleges moved to collect the enrolment cards and submit the examination forms at the eleventh hour.
The students maintained that it was all a mental torture. ”Imagine some of us would have to visit the college on Monday for the admit cards or removal of objections raised by the university in regard to issuance of enrolment cards, while the examination would be held the same day in the afternoon.”
Dawn received many telephone calls of students late Saturday night in which they narrated their plight and height of negligence on part of the university and colleges. A couple of girl students of the SMC said that they had come to know that admit cards had been delivered to their college staff but the students were being deprived of that.
“Now we have been asked to visit the college on Monday morning in connection with the admit card or enrolment card problems as Sunday is a holiday. Our college principal is not available and we are literally finding ourselves in hot water due to the faults of others,” said the students and urged the Sindh governor and chief minister to intervene and order the authorities to provide immediate relief to them.
When contacted, the KU controller of examinations, Inkisarul Haq, said that under the directives of the vice-chancellor he was taking all measures to reduce the problems.
Till late Saturday, enrolment cases of 14 students from the DMC and seven from the SMC were left to be settled, he said, adding that concerned staff at the university would be available on Sunday between 10am to 4pm to deal with the objection cases and then to issue admit cards.
However, he pointed out that only college representatives would be entertained and in no case the students would be allowed to take up their enrolment or admit card-related problems at the university.
He said that the students whose cases of enrolment were withheld in the wake of some objections, already pointed out to the colleges, could be allowed to appear in the exam on Monday or the day after, provided the respective college authority applied to the vice-chancellor for the purpose.
He said that the students who had got their seat and enrolment numbers mentioned in the admit cards should not be worried to produce the enrolment cards at the examination centres, as they would be allowed to appear on the basis of their admit cards.
He said that parents could also contact him on telephone or pursue the college authorities to get things settled on Sunday or Monday morning.
Initially, the university had withheld the enrolment cards of 91 students, including 73 from the DMC, on ground of different objections. The students were of the view that very little time was left at their disposal for getting the objections removed and obtain the admit cards and as such authorities should shift at least the first two papers of the part-A examination to some other dates.