GUJRAT: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has disposed of three writ petitions filed by the management and students of Hashmat Medical and Dental College (HMDC) in Jalalpur Jattan.

The petitioners had sought issuance of direction to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and Riphah University to grant registration to and allow the college’s 100 students enrolled in the 2016-17 session to sit the MBBS examination.

IHC judge Mian Gull Hassan Aurangzaib refused to issue any such direction after the PMDC submitted its fresh inspection report of the HMDC; the council had paid an inspection visit to the college on March 15 in light of the court’s direction on March 6.

According to the report, the HMDC could obtain only 414 marks out of 1,000, while it needed at least 750 marks to fulfil the requirements. Therefore, the court could not direct either Riphah University or PMDC to register the college’s students to allow them to sit the MBBS examination, the court order stated.

Citing various observations made by the PMDC inspection team, the court order said the faculty of HMDC showed a private teaching hospital located in Gujrat as their own and the team did not witness any patient-related activity there nor was there any proof of ownership of the hospital shown by the management.

The court said the HMDC admitted the students in question despite explicit warnings issued by the PMDC in letters dated March 29, 2017 and Nov 27, 2017. Moreover, the impression created by the HMDC that it was permitted by the high court vide order dated Feb 28, 2017 was misleading since it was explicitly ordered that if HMDC fell short of PMDC’s requirements, any admissions made would be at its own risk and cost.

The Riphah deputy registrar told the court that their MBBS examination and of its affiliated medical colleges had been held in January. He further said two MBBS examinations had never been conducted in the same year, adding that student recognition was the domain of PMDC.

The HMDC management through its focal person, Dr Tehsina Zafar, had filed a civil petition in the Supreme Court and on the hearing on March 26 the apex court had asked the PMDC registrar to submit on April 4 a detailed report regarding the inspection by its team.

The affected students of HMDC have been protesting in Islamabad and Gujrat for two months for not being allowed to sit the MBBS Part-I exams.

On the other hand, the HMDC management recently enrolled another batch of around 100 students for the 2018-19 session that has already commenced.

The Gujrat district administration had earlier intervened and sought an explanation from the HMDC management after the protesting students lodged a written complaint with Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali who had appointed Additional District Collector Musa Raza as inquiry officer.

The HMDC representatives had appeared before the inquiry officer only once and that too without documentary proof. They said the college was enrolling students on the basis of litigation and later told the administration to seek explanation in writing instead of any verbal clarification since then there was no progress in that inquiry.

The HMDC had been established in 2011, but in 2013 the PMDC barred it from operating due to the college’s failure to fulfil requirements. The affected students were then shifted to other private medical colleges following court orders. But the HMDC again commenced admissions in 2016-17 and enrolled 100 students.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2018