LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday declared illegal
the present composition of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council
(PMDC) and also its 2016 regulations for admissions to MBBS and BDS in
medical colleges.
A division bench comprising Justice
Ayesha A. Malik and Justice Jawad Hassan passed the order while allowing
a number of appeals moved by students and private medical colleges
challenging composition of the PMDC and retrospective implementation of
its regulations “Central Admission Programme” of 2016.
Announcing
the judgment reserved a week ago, Justice Malik said the PMDC had been
working under an amended ordinance of 2015, which stood lapsed,
therefore, being an unlawful entity all the regulations introduced by
the council were illegal.
LHC orders fresh election in three months
“Sections 9 (c), 7, 8 and 11 of the impugned regulations are hereby struck down,” the judge continued to read the judgment.
The
bench directed the federal government to hold fresh election of the
PMDC within three months in light of the council’s 1962 ordinance. The
bench allowed the present cabinet of the council to run day-to-day
affairs only till the lawful composition of the medical profession
regulator.
It also directed the Council of Common
Interest (CCI) to review admission policy as the previous regulations
enforced by the PMDC were not approved by the CCI. The bench restored
2013 regulations enabling the private medical colleges to conduct
admissions independently.
Advocates Ijaz Awan, Ahsan
Bhoon and Abid Saqi had represented the appellants while Noshab A. Khan
pleaded on behalf of the PMDC.
The appellants’ counsel
had mainly contended that the impugned regulations were framed by the
PMDC when its amendment ordinance, 2015 had already lapsed in April 2016
by dint of Article 89 of the Constitution.
Therefore,
they said, the regulations 2016 were unlawful and without backing of any
law besides being ultra vires to the Constitution as well as PMDC
Ordinance, 1962.
About implementation of the
regulations, the lawyers said the PMDC implemented the new regulations
retrospectively instead of prospectively from academic sessions of
2020–21 protecting and exhausting all the ongoing sessions. They
submitted that law had been settled on the point that executive’s
actions could not have retrospective effects.
They said
drastic changes introduced in the impugned regulations regarding
eligibility criteria for SAT-II students had caused extreme frustration
as well as it discouraged a large number of aspiring candidates.
The
counsel, therefore, requested the court to set aside 2016 regulations
of the PMDC for being unconstitutional and unwarranted and framed
unlawfully.
