LAHORE, Sept 19: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) has denounced the defamation campaign launched by some private medical colleges in connivance with former UHS employees against the university and its vice chancellor.

In a press statement issued on Monday, a UHS spokesman said after the chief minister's decision to take action against illegally operating and substandard private medical colleges and to centralise their admission process, the administration of some of these colleges had launched a campaign against the UHS and the Punjab government, especially focusing towards the character assassination of UHS Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Malik Husain Mubashar. He claimed that these colleges were using former employees of the university to level false and fabricated allegations against the UHS and its administration.

The spokesman clarified around 108 employee of the university working on a contract basis in grade 1 to 15 were terminated on disciplinary grounds last year by the UHS Board of Governors (BoG) after they resorted to violent protests for the regularisation of their services and declined to accept a five-year contract offered to them under university's service statute.

These employees filed two writ petitions in the Lahore High Court against their termination orders which were dismissed by the court on Aug 17, 2010, and Dec 13, 2010, respectively.

The spokesman said Prof Mubashar was an eminent health professional with 40 years teaching experience and he was appointed for second term according to the provisions of UHS (Amendment) Act, 2009, on the recommendation of a search committee formed by the Punjab government for that purposes. “All the legal requirements were fulfilled with regards to his reappointment,” he claimed.

He said the allegations made against vice-chancellor's son were also baseless. Imtiaz Mubashar had been a student of MBBS at Wah Medical College (WMC), Wah Cantonment, a private sector institution affiliated with the UHS, from 2004 to 2009.

“Attendance and performance of a student in class tests and send-up examinations are internal matters of any college. The university accepts any information provided by the college authorities in this regard.”

In case of Imtiaz, the university never received any letter from college authorities about his short attendances or alleged poor performance in class tests. If the attendance of Imtiaz was short or his performance in send-up examinations was not up to the mark, it was the responsibility of college authorities concerned not to send his admission form to the UHS for annual examinations.

On the contrary, the administration of WMC certified in Imtiaz's admission forms from first year to final year that he had good moral conduct and he attended at least two-thirds of all lectures delivered, the UHS spokesman added.

He said the administration of WMC was very strict in disciplinary matters. The college was being run by Pakistan Ordnance Factory Board, consisting of high-ranking army officials. Their system was transparent and any discrimination was out of question. Had Imtiaz Mubashar shown poor academic performance during his stay in the college, the authorities would have taken strict disciplinary action against him. On the contrary, no such disciplinary action had ever been taken or reported. After the campaign launched by private medical colleges, the UHS had sealed and saved all documents regarding Imtiaz Mubashar, including his solved answer books of all professional examinations for record.

Responding to another allegation, the spokesman said that Prof Mubashar did not draw his salary as per MP-I scale approved by the Higher Education Commission for the vice chancellors of all public-sector universities. “He is drawing the salary of BS-22 and receiving no extra allowances and other financial privileges,” he added.

The UHS spokesman said according to Section 37 of the UHS Act, 2009, all public and private medical/dental institutions of the Punjab province were bound to affiliate with the UHS.

“The mandatory nature of Section 37 of the UHS Act has been endorsed by the Lahore High Court and the Supreme Court,” he said adding that with centralised admissions in private medical colleges, merit would be ensured that would indeed improve the quality of medical education and health care delivery system in Punjab.

The UHS spokesman said private medical colleges which were violating the law would be taken to task and all efforts would be made to save the rights of students by saving them from the clutches of 'Private Mafias'.