LARKANA: Expressing their reservations over what was described as “undue police pressure”, five members of the disciplinary committee — formed by the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) — have resigned from the committee, it emerged on Monday.

The resignations of Prof Dr Mohammed Ilyas Shaikh, the Bibi Aseefa Dental College (BADC) principal who headed the committee, Prof Dr Riaz Shaikh, the head of the Pharmacology department, Prof Zafar Pirzado, Dr Qaimuddin Shaikh and Dr Saleem Raza Khuhawar, were sent to the SMBBMU vice chancellor Prof Dr Ghulam Asghar Channa on Friday, sources said.

The en-block resignations came in the wake of the committee’s meeting last week where the SMBBMU management took the decision to reverse the rustication order of three BADC students who were found involved in serious breach of discipline and vitiating the academic atmosphere on the campus. The Larkana DIG, acting as the mediator, some senior leaders of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz and the three rusticated students attended the meeting, held in the DIG’s office.

Prof Dr Ilyas Shaikh confirmed to Dawn here on Monday that the resignations had been sent to the vice chancellor on Friday.

“The disciplinary committee held its own meeting after the one held in the DIG office,” he said, adding that it [the committee] expressed its reservations over the DIG’s act of imposing his decision on it. “The disciplinary committee will lose its worth if decisions are thrust upon it by police,” he argued.

He said all the members who resigned from the committee were of the view that under these circumstances they were unable to continue sitting on the committee. Prof Shaikh said that the committee members had rejected the decision taken at the DIG office meeting and the VC should have referred it to the same committee for a review but this did not happen.

He appeared so dejected by the developments that he expressed his intention to quit as the BADC principal. “I have requested the SMBBMU vice chancellor to look for some other person for the seat,”he said.

He said it would be better for him to quit before things turned worse, and apprehended that the developments taking place on the campus might also deepen the crisis the BADC had been embroiled in for long. He observed that the crisis related to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council recognition of the college.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2016