Peshawar - Peshawar High Court has summoned Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) authorities after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted inquiry report regarding a number of private medical colleges.
In the court hearing, Assistant Director Amjad Ali and Deputy Director Rizwan Shah represented the FIA.
Talking to The Nation later on, FIA’s Assistant Director Amjad Ali, who was inquiry officer of the case, said that there were 17 private medical and dental colleges against which probe was carried out.
Amjad Ali told The Nation that the marks for admissions in private medical colleges were divided such that 50% marks for MDCAT, 30% for FSc while 20% marks were reserved for the interviews.
Under Admissions Regulations-2020, issued by Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), 20% marks were reserved for interview for admission in private medical colleges while there was no such weightage of interview for public sector medical colleges. He said the FIA report had also recommended annulling the 20% interview marks.
It may be mentioned here that management of a private medical college, Muhammad College of Medicine, had demanded Rs7 million for admission from a student via a phone call, which had later gone viral on the social media. Amjad Ali said that there were also other complaints from people about the exploitation and wrongdoings of medical colleges, thus leading to an inquiry by FIA and other probe bodies.
The report revealed that private medical colleges misused the 20% discretionary marks to candidates for ulterior motives and were also involved in other irregularities during recent admissions of MBBS.
It said there were candidates who were low in PMC merit list but were awarded higher marks in interview.
It said there were no proper merit lists during the process. Some colleges have received donations and advance fee of Rs6 million to Rs7 millions in lump sum from students and even bank guarantees were obtained from them, depriving many talented students of their right.
The FIA recommended the government to deregister certain medical colleges and also review of their admissions in accordance with merit rules.
PHC Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan, while showing concern over the affairs of medical colleges observed they had been using it for money making. The court summoned the Vice President of the PMC on next hearing.
CAPT SAFDAR GRANTED PRE-ARREST BAIL: Meanwhile, Peshawar High Court on Tuesday accepted the pre-arrest bail application of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz leader Capt (Retd) Mohammad Safdar in a reference of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Speaking to journalists after getting the bail, the PML-N leader termed the verdict a fair decision and said that such decisions would strengthen the country and the state.
The court had reserved the judgement in the case last week. Safdar had to break his fast after his health condition worsened during the previous hearing and he was taken to hospital where his condition was later declared to be stable.