FAISALABAD, Aug 24: Boycotting classes for the second consecutive day, hundreds of students of the Punjab Medical College on Tuesday demonstrated and took out a rally in protest against the policies of the University of Health Sciences.

They described changes made by the UHS in the examination system and admission policy as uncalled for. The protesting students marched through several roads and also staged sit-in on the campus. They chanted slogans against the university administration and demanded immediate intervention of the Punjab governor and the chief minister in the matter.

During the protest, a representative of Punjab Health Minister Dr Muhammad Tahir talked to the students and asked them to meet the minister at the college's committee room.

Later, a committee of students comprising Muhammad Irfan, Ataullah Qasmi, Sarfraz, Ihsanullah and three girls met the minister and informed him that the UHS had amended some basic policies about the admission and examination of the medical students.

The minister assured them that their demands and reservations would be communicated to the Punjab chief minister and the governor. The students announced postponement of their boycott.

MINORITIES: The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA) blamed the government for depriving them of their basic rights. A meeting of office-bearers of various minority organizations held here on Tuesday said the discriminatory attitude against them, implication in concocted cases and killings had become a normal practice in the country.

MPAs Pervaiz Rafique, Khalid Gill and Naveed Amir and other leaders Ashir Chaudhry, Ijaz Emanuel and Akmal Bhatti said their elders had offered sacrifices for the creation of Pakistan. But now Christians were being targeted and victimized by the rulers as well as law enforcement agencies due to reasons best known to them, they added.

They claimed that the government had crossed all limits of discrimination against Christians and playing in the hands of self-styled leaders for prolonging their rule.

They said lawlessness, price hike and unemployment were on the rise and the Christian community was its worst victim as there was no quota of jobs for them in the private and government departments and even local bodies which was highly uncalled for.

They claimed that the registration of false cases against their leaders had also become an order of the day due to which they were feeling insecure. They demanded immediate withdrawal of discriminatory sections of blasphemy laws, Hadood Ordinance and fixing of 5 per cent quota in government jobs for Christians.

FOUR INJURED: Four labourers sustained serious injuries in a gas tank explosion here on Tuesday in an industrial unit on Maqbool Road. Reports said dozens of labourers were working in the processing unit when the gas tank exploded with a big bang. As a result Afzal, Ilyas, Zulfiqar and Muneer sustained injuries and were shifted to the Allied Hospital.