Medical school hopefuls face more uncertainty

LAHORE: The Punjab government is to appeal to the Supreme Court following the Lahore High Court’s ruling that the provincial government had wrongly raised the eligibility criteria for entry tests to medical colleges, The Express Tribune has learnt.

In a ruling announced on September 6, the LHC said the Punjab government had illegally raised the minimum marks required in the FSc exams to be eligible to sit entry tests at medical colleges to 65 percent.

The court told the government to follow the rules laid down by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), which allow students with 60 percent marks to sit the entry tests.

The provincial government’s decision to appeal the ruling means thousands of students hoping to get into medical school face an uncertain future.

The government has stopped the University of Health Sciences (UHS) from announcing the schedule of admissions in public medical colleges in the Punjab, UHS officials told The Express Tribune.

The Punjab government had also introduced a formula for calculating the merit list for MBBS and BDS, under which the prospective student’s FSc marks were given 70 percent weight and his entry test marks were given 30 percent weight.

But according to PMDC rules, the formula should give 40 percent weight to FSc exam marks, 10 percent to matriculation marks and 50 percent to the entry test.

The LHC told the Punjab government to also revert to the PMDC formula.

The Punjab government had also made it mandatory to secure a minimum of 60 percent marks to pass the entry test, while under PMDC rules there should be no pass marks for the entry test.

Health Department officials said that the Punjab government did not agree with the LHC’s order and would move the apex court.

The officials pointed out other instances where PMDC rules were being violated in medical colleges.

The Punjab government has added 942 MBBS seats in medical colleges for 2010-2011. The PMDC informed the Punjab government through a letter dated August 18 that it would not approve these extra seats since council rules limited each public medical college to 250 admissions each year. The sources added that the Punjab government had admitted an extra 16 candidates to the Nishter Institute of Dentistry in 2009, but the PMDC had yet to approve the additional seats.

Muhammad Atif, the UHS director for media and communications, told The Express Tribune that the university awaited instructions from the Punjab government to announce the schedule for admissions to medical colleges. He said that under the LHC decision, the UHS would follow the PMDC’s rules for eligibility and calculation of merit.

Health Secretary Fawad Hassan said that the Punjab government would implement the LHC decision unless it decided to move the Supreme Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2010.