The Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions was informed on Monday that 36 reserved seats of MBBS/BDS in medical colleges for students of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the issue of medical quota in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has been resolved.
The committee directed that the matter must be resolved at the earliest and that a circular must be passed over to the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) members for feedback.
It also recommended that a letter should be sent on behalf of the Senate Secretariat to ensure that the matter is expedited. It also gave a chance to students protesting against PMC to come and raise their demands before the commission representative to reach a mutual conclusion. It pointed out that the PMC president would not be present in the meeting.
The students are of the view that 600 of them from three medical colleges banned by PMC must be regularised without conducting any special exams, otherwise if they fail to pass the national licencing exam, they would be filtered out.
The committee’s meeting reviewed details of non-local staff serving in hospitals in merged areas and issues pertaining to teaching and non-teaching staff of the remaining Governor Model Schools in the merged districts.
The committee also deliberated over the extension of scholarship programme for admission in medical and dental colleges, and doubling of quota of universities for candidates of merged districts.
While discussing the details of the non-local staff serving in hospitals of the merged areas, Senator Hilalur Rehman, the chairman of the committee, directed the health department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) to share detailed lists, along with CNIC numbers, so that they could be verified by the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA).
The committee also took up the issue of teaching and non-teaching staff of Governor Model Schools in merged districts which were established by political agents of the said agencies -- the status of which was left in limbo after the 18th Amendment. The committee stressed the need for the matter to be expedited.
The education department of K-P informed the committee that the status of these schools was autonomous and they were placed under the administrative control of E&SE Department.
In order to give legal cover to these schools, they were notified under the Government Educational and Training Institutions Ordinance, 1971, it was told.
It was further informed that the board of governors of these schools is under process and a summary in this regard has been sent to the K-P chief minister for approval.
Chaired by Senator Rehman, the meeting was attended by Senators Bahramand Khan Tangi, Danesh Kumar, Dost Muhammad Khan, Anwar Lal Dean, Haji Hidayatullah Khan, Syed Muhammad Sabir Shahand, and senior officers from the Ministry of State and Frontier Regions, KP health department, Higher Education Commission (HEC) and PMC.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2022.
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