Little did the graduating college students of 2019 knew about the battlefield that awaited them on the way of getting into medical universities only because they bore a birth mark of being a Pakistani citizen.
It taught them the first lesson of work ethic pertinent to our nation which no doubt is yet forefront in debilitating the health sector inside out, i.e. deception, disdain and torture.
With a fluctuating group of incompetent medical boards and a so called ‘executing board’-UHS, defending itself as a guileless party, has jeopardized the future of medical students by implementing a hare-brained scheme of three college preferences out of 35+ options.
Naturally being no statistical analysts, hundreds of cases have been accounted where students with good merits didn’t meet their preferences and have been stashed in universities either far from their homes or low in merit!
Recently, a solution was devised by the government of Punjab advising readmission with no 3-preference rule. This gave a sigh of relief to the beaten ones but understandably already admitted students didn’t wanted to tour back through the conundrum so the issue travelled to LHC.
UHS is failing miserably in resolving this issue, trying to find a diplomatic end on the expense of time of the troubled party of students who are either not going to a university that is far off and doesn’t even have a hostel on premises, who can’t afford extra dime on hostels on top of the expenses of private colleges and those who are planning to quit because they are in low merit colleges.
Neither time is waiting for the ones who fell off into the pit of this predicament and nor LHC is being steadfast in making a bridge for them by extending court hearings and delaying obvious measures!
I plead LHC to immediately put a stop to this turmoil hijacking the current academic year of students along with a devastating frameshift of five years and to resolve issues of students who haven’t settled in a university yet, by providing individual rights or enforcing readmission policy which is expected to be fruitful.
Further instructions by LHC given on 17/03 still don’t guarantee hundred percent security to the disadvantaged candidates. Therefore, I urge the authorities to take a stand for the suffering students before the hope of education and justice diminishes in the worthy youth of today and we wake up to a corrupted tomorrow!
Hiba Nasim Bashir
Lahore
