# New migration policy in the offin



## chickoos (Jul 20, 2008)

*Manzoor Qadir
* *LAHORE: A comprehensive migration policy covering both unilateral and mutual migration cases among medical colleges, Engineering University and other educational institutions of the Punjab is in the offing.

The Post has learnt that the health department, following the direction of the competent authority of the Punjab, has constituted a committee to review and formulate a strategy to tackle the issue that not only creates problems for the students but also for the educational institutions. 

The sources in the Civil Secretariat told this scribe that the maiden meeting of the newly formed committee is going to be held on 16th of this month under the chairmanship of the secretary health. The committee will include the Planning and Development Board chairman, the secretary, the Higher Education Department, Justice (retd) Mian Mahboob, chairman, Board of Management, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, King Edward Medical University Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Zafarullah Khan, Vice Chancellor, University of Engineering and Technology, Vice Chancellor, University of Health Sciences, former health minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed, Dr Abdul Majeed Chaudhary, principal, Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Dr Naeem-ud-Din Mian, Dr Amir Aziz, Dr Ali Cheema, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Ms Nusrat Jameel, and additional health secretary technical as focal person. 

According to the present policy, under extraordinary circumstances, the Punjab chief secretary, on the recommendation of principals and vice chancellor/deans, may allow migration of a student from any other medical institute/ university or from other foreign/Pakistani universities generally under the condition that the student will only be migrated after completion of second year in other public medical institute/university and before beginning of the final year. 

There are mainly two categories in the migration, first, unilateral in which only those students who possess good academic record shall be considered for admission by migration, secondly, mutual under which students shall be allowed mutual migration if they intend to have mutual transfer. 

The sources said the government intends regularisation of migration policy based on merit and would remove the flaws in the current policy. The committee would likely to give suggestions for closing down the backdoors which are used by the elite class.

The committee is also likely to submit recommendations that only those candidates shall be allowed migration to the educational institutes for which they fulfil the merit criterion.

For instance, if an MBBS student of Punjab Medical College intends migration to King Edward Medical University (KEMU), he should have at least equal marks in the FSc plus entry test to a student studying in the KEMU. 

The committee will also propose measures to stop ongoing underhand financial deals among the students in the name of mutual migration. 

Deputy Secretary Health for Medical Education Dr Shahid Amin confirmed that the health department was reviewing the migration policy for making it more transparent. 

"The comprehensive policy would be binding for all public educational institutes of the province," he maintained*.


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