Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the pleas of those admitted to medical colleges through self-finance to charge normal fees. A three-member SC bench comprising Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah heard the case filed by 17 students admitted on self-finance in different medical colleges.

During the course of proceedings, lawyer of the students said that the Punjab government issued a notification for awarding 76 self-financed seats on open merit. Now, only foreign students would be admitted on self finance, he added. He said that overseas Pakistanis would also not be admitted to MBBS on self-finance. He pleaded that now his clients should also be charged the same fee as open merit candidates.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah said that the government had not abolished self-finance. Justice Qazi Faez Isa remarked that there was also a principle of filing a petition in court as a writ could be filed only if there was damage or aggrieved by any action of the government. There was no basis for filing this application, he added.

He asked the counsel what damage did his clients get from the government’s notification? He asked even if the court cancelled this notification, what would these students get?

The lawyer of the students said that his clients did not want to cancel the notification, they wanted the open merit fee to be taken from them now. The Chief Justice remarked that the admission of these students was due to money, and no merit list was made for these students.

The counsel for Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) said that sometimes students who got 85 percent marks did not get admission on open merit but those who get 35 percent marks were admitted in the medical colleges on self-finance.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the high court and disposed of the matter by rejecting the requests of those enrolled in medical colleges through self-finance to collect normal fees.