Punjab Study

LAHORE:Justice Sh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court on Monday ordered University of Health Sciences (UHS) to allow 91 nursing students of Saida Waheed FMH Nursing College to sit in examinations starting from January 18 (today).

The judge passed the order on the petition of Saida Waheed FMH Nursing College ñ filed through Training Programme director Mrs Irshad Javed ñ submitting that the UHS had unlawfully denied permission to more than 30 nursing students per year to sit in the examination.

The judge directed the UHS to give permission to the students to sit in the exam immediately but it may withhold announcement of the results till final judgment on the petition pending before the court.

The petitioner through counsel Sidra F Sheikh advocate submitted that UHS, on June 2, 2008, had granted affiliation to Saida Waheed FMH Nursing College for teaching BSc Nursing (4 years) programme and Post RN Nursing (2 years) courses only with annual intake of 30 student for each programme.

The counsel said that, on July 2, 2008, the nursing college had written a letter to the UHS registrar expressing dissatisfaction over limit of 30 students per year and requested him for an affiliation for in-intake of 60 students for each programme. Later, the demand had been increased to 75 students per annum, she said.

Afterwards, she said, several meetings were held between the college and syndicate/ UHS on the matter and UHS authorities linked decision on the matter to a new inspection of the college premises and faculty by the UHS committee. The committee had not conducted the inspection despite several reminders, prolonged the matter, she said. Now examinations were starting at the UHS from January 18 but the UHS had refused to give permission to students to sit in exam, thus playing with the future of the students, she added.

The counsel said the college had managed to have its students sit in the examination in February 2009 on a provisional basis, subject to review of the request to increase number of students by the UHS syndicate in the next meeting. Later, on December 22, 2010, the petitioner had written a letter to the UHS, saying the affiliation committee would make a surprise visit to the nursing college to assess its facilities and registration of students for session 2010. The committee had not conducted the visit and the fate of students was hanging in balance.

The court was requested to direct the varsity to give permission to nursing students to sit in the exam, otherwise the students would have to face one year loss, seriously affecting their career.

LHC CJ greets LBA body: Lahore High Court Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry congratulated newly elected office-bearers of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA) and hoped they would uphold the cause of rule of law.

In his message to the new body of the LBA, the LHC CJ hoped that they would devotedly work for redress of grievances of litigants in accordance with the constitution and law. He also hoped that they would work for better relationship between the bench and the bar.

Three drug pushers jailed: An anti-narcotics court on Monday convicted three drug pushers.

The court has awarded eight-year jail term each to Ghulam Abbas and Zeeshan Haider. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 450,000 each on both convicts. The Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) had arrested and seized 30 kilograms of heroin from their possession.

Meanwhile, the court has awarded seven-month confinement to a drug peddler, Khaliq Dad, as he was proved guilty of possessing 800 grams of heroin. The court has also fined him Rs 20,000.The news