LAHORE, Feb 10: The postgraduate students of Unit-II of the Fatima Jinnah Medical College/Ganga Ram Hospital’s gynae department have been denied their stipend before Eidul Azha.
The college administration cited the students’ supervisor’s absence for the last three months to be the reason for delay in stipends, which were due on Feb 1.
The PG students’ supervisor Prof Yasmin Rashid was dismissed from service under the Punjab Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance 2002 on Nov 26 last year.
It was learnt that the postgraduate students wrote to FJMC Principal Executive Officer Prof Shaheena Manzoor that they had requested the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan to appoint a new supervisor. They added that Associate Prof Dr Arshad Chauhan had agreed to supervise them.
The matter to give stipend to all the gynae unit-II postgraduate students was also raised in the last academic council meeting. The council members had reportedly said the stipend of the PG students would have never stopped if there was a supervisor.
Some academic council members alleged that Prof Shaheena had intentionally delayed the matter and deprived the students of their stipend before Eid. “The three months without a supervisor lapsed on Jan 26 and there was ample time to sort out the matter before Eid,” they claimed.
Some members said the college should give them stipend when they had opted to change their supervisor.
It was also learnt that the affected students were expected to attend the emergencies on Eid, as Wednesday would be the unit’s emergency day.
When contacted, the college PEO said the matter would be sorted out after Eid. She added that the finance department had raised an objection that the PG students could not be given training stipend when they had no supervisor for three months. “We have to rectify the objection to save ourselves from audit paras,” she said.
In order to resolve the matter, Prof Shaheena said she had called the CPSP officials to give the PG students under the supervision of Dr Arshad Chauhan and another assistant professor.
She said the college had exempt some PG students whose training period was ending within two months. She, however, said they had not been paid their stipend.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Medical Association Punjab and Lahore chapters’ leaders said the FJMC PEO had stopped the stipend of the gynae unit-II students to victimize them for participating in demonstrations with Prof Yasmin against the Punjab health department.
In a statement, Punjab PMA President Dr Dil Muhammad Mirza and Lahore President Dr Zahid Mohyuddin said the students’ major fault was that they got training under the supervision of Prof Yasmin.
They said all the postgraduate students were working on the health department’s sanctioned and budgeted posts. They added that the PEO stopped the stipend, although the students had informed her that they were ready to opt for a new supervisor.
They asked the PEO to refrain from playing with the students’ future otherwise the association would protest in favour of the affected students.