Punjab Study

Lahore:February 05: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has criticized Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Lahore, for charging Rs 500,000 each annually as fee from its students, terming it injustice to students.

“Being a government medical college, all the funding and budget is being provided by the funds from the public exchequer by the federal government,” said Pakistan Medical Association office-bearers, including Dr Tanveer Anwar, Dr Izhar Ahmed Chaudhry and Dr Shahid Malik, Dr Ashraf Nizami.

Terming it sheer incompetence on the part of the federal government, which had failed to take action against the college on the matter, they said, “This is the only government medical college which is charging fee equal to that by private sector despite getting 100 percent funding from the government,” they added.

They termed this a great injustice to students and their parents, saying the Pakistan Medical Association had raised the matter with the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, which, instead of taking action on the matter, had referred the matter to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council and the Federal Health Ministry.

Later, these departments, after shifting the responsibility of taking action to each other, had finally sent the matter to the Secretary Cabinet Division, who according to rules of business 1973, was in fact responsible for running the affairs of the Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Lahore.

The PMA’s demand was now lying on the table of the Cabinet Secretary, who was not interested in taking a decision on the matter.

The PMA has announced moving the Lahore High Court on the issue, saying a petition would be filed in this regard in the court through Noshab A Khan advocate.

The PMA appealed to all the parents of the students of Shaikh Zayed Medical College Lahore to get themselves registered at Pakistan Medical Association House Lahore 66 Ferozpur Road Lahore to become a part of this movement so that a collective strategy could be announced at a later stage on the issue of unfair fee structure at the Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Lahore.The news.