Justice Fazal Subhan granted full hearing to two identical petitions challenging the KMU’s decision to rule them ineligible for admission on self-financed dual national seats.
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has issued a stay order preventing the Khyber Medical University (KMU) from converting self-financing seats designated for dual nationals into those designated for local residents only.
Justice Fazal Subhan of a single-member bench granted full hearing to two identical petitions by students Asfandyar Khan and Faria Fawad challenging the KMU’s decision to rule them ineligible for admission on self-financed dual national seats.
The petitioners were not considered for admission under that category because the university insisted on the two completing the FSc course (grades 11–12) in Pakistan rather than abroad, as required.
The bench served notices on the respondents, including the vice chancellor of KMU, the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) through its president, and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council through its chairman, requesting a separate response to the petition at a later date.
It barred respondents, including the KMU, from converting self-financing seats for dual nationals to general seats until further orders were issued.
Mohammad Nasir Ghilzai and Mohammad Ismail, who represented the petitioners, stated that their clients had applied for admission to the KMU’s MBBS and BDS programs. They claimed that petitioner Asfandyar Khan was a dual national of Pakistan and Turkey, while petitioner Faria Fawad held both Pakistani and American citizenship.
According to the lawyers, petitioner Asfandyar received 144 points in the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test, with an aggregate score of 80.35 points, and was placed in Serial No. 23 of the provisional merit list in the KMU’s “foreign” self-finance category.
They also stated that petitioner Faria received 73.67 total points and was assigned to Serial No. 37 of that category. The counsel, on the other hand, stated that their clients had been declared ineligible for admission under that category by the KMU for failing the Pakistani higher secondary school certificate examination.
They also stated that no such condition was mentioned in the Pakistan Medical Commission Act, relevant PMC rules, or the KMU admission policy. The counsel said that condition was not even pointed out in the KMU admissions advertisement.
They claimed that the petitioners filed a formal complaint against the decision with the KMU’s admission committee, but that it was rejected, and that the committee stated in its comments on the complaint that “the approved admission policy for this year’s admission was uploaded on the website almost two months ago.”
The lawyers claimed that the KMU published the final merit list for the session 2022–23 on December 26 but did not include the petitioners’ names. They did, however, claim that it included some other candidates with comparable qualifications and credentials.
The counsel contended that the respondents could not impose that condition arbitrarily because it was not mentioned in the PMC Act. They added that the KMU intended to transfer the vacant foreign self-finance seats to the general self-finance category and that it should be stopped from doing so until the final disposal of the petitions.