PESHAWAR, Feb 16: The University of Peshawar allowed students of an unaffiliated private medical college last month to take examinations along with students of an affiliated institution apparently violation of rules, sources said on Thursday.

Eight students of the Peshawar-based Jinnah Medical College (JMC) took three papers of the third-year examination at the Khyber Medical College (KMC) between Jan 25 and Jan 31.

“We came to know about the matter when we got the roll numbers of the JMC for practical examinations which were conducted in the first week of February,” said a source at the KMC.

According to him, as a rule, the University of Peshawar should have informed the principal, internal and external examiners well before the commencement of the examination.

“This was a clear violation of rules,” said the source. Only a month ago, an inspection committee constituted by the university had visited the same college and noted that it did not fulfil the criteria for affiliation with the university for the third-year examination.

But after learning about these students during practical exams, the KMC’s principal allowed them to take the exam on compassionate grounds, said a source.

The source said that a 200-member academic council of the KMC in its meeting held on Tuesday had taken strong exception to the matter, because the JMC had not been issued a no-objection certificate (NOC) by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

The issue stirred a heated debate at the council’s meeting on account of the unprecedented development, said a source.

“The principal of the (KMC) has already written a letter to the vice chancellor of Peshawar University and requested him to explain why the students of an unaffiliated college were allowed to give the third-year examination,” said another source.

The letter says that a committee constituted by the VC had given a negative report about the college and despite that its students were allowed to take the examination at the KMC.

The matter has enraged the three internal examiners at the KMC and the external examiner, who has also written letters to the PMDC and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to probe the matter, the source said.

According to them, the letters written by the external examiner had stated that he had been sent to act as internal examiner for the KMC students, but was surprised to see students of the private medical college in the examination hall.

“It is a common practice that the UoP asked both the internal and external examiners about the number of students and the institutions to which they belong, but in this case neither the examiners nor the principal had been informed beforehand,” said a source.

He said that two such attempts made by the owner of another private medical college had been foiled in the past, because the academic council of the college thought it would hurt the medical education.