LARKANA: A row between professors and a group of candidates taking the MBBS exams at the Chandka Medical College ended on Friday when Shaheed Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) management agreed to reconstitute the exam vigilance committee(s) and stop an aggrieved professor from enjoying a free hand.

Prof Hakim Abro had an altercation with a couple of candidates, one of them a son of another professor at the same college, during the exam on Wednesday. Prof Abro said the candidates reacted when he stopped them from using unfair means and talking to other candidates. The aggrieved candidates alleged that the professor’s attitude was insulting and offending.

The matter led to tension on the campus as a group of candidates boycotted the exam and sealed off entry to the campus, forcing the university to postpone the remaining papers indefinitely.

They insisted on removal of Prof Abro from the vigilance committee.

Larkana Commissioner Dr Saeed Mangnejo also had to intervene as the protesting candidates accused Prof Abro of extending death threats to certain students and demanded registration of a case against him.

On Friday, the SMBBMU management held negotiations with the protesting candidates and agreed to reconstitute the vigilance commit­tee(s) and reschedule the postponed papers.

It also agreed to bar Prof Abro from visiting the exam hall during a particular paper.

Vice Chancellor Prof Ghulam Asghar Channa, deputy registrar Prof Shahida Shaikh, controller of examinations Dr Akbar Bhutto and CMC principal Prof Saifullah Jamro held talks with the agitating students led by Asif Chandio.

During the deliberations, the university management agreed to constitute three separate vigilance committees one for the medicine and surgery papers and two for the ENT and surgery papers with the arrangement under which the one for the ENT paper would oversee the surgery theory papers and the other tasked with supervising the surgery paper would look after the ENT theory papers.

The candidates demand that Prof Hakim Abro be removed from the (originally one) committee was not accepted but he, being the professor of medicine, was restricted to the examination halls where surgery papers would be conducted. The protesting candidates agreed to the arrangement.

Meanwhile, Asif Chandio told Dawn that the matter had been settled amicably and the tension that had gripped the campus waned.

Following the settlement, the university decided to resume the scheduled papers from Jan 8.

The postponed papers, it announced, would be held on Jan 19 and 24. It said that the papers scheduled for Jan 3 and 5 at the Ghulam Mohammed Mahar Medical College, Sukkur, had been postponed on account of Eid-i-Miladun Nabi.

Sources said that Jan 8 was fixed for the resumption of the exam in view of reports that some candidates had left the city for their homes amid an uncertain situation created by the unrest on the campus and their return had to be facilitated.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2015

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