Seats in medical, dental colleges to be increased

20% to be reserved for deserving students on scholarships

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to increase the number of the seats in the public and private medical and dental colleges in the province.

More than 20 per cent of the seats would be reserved for deserving students on scholarships.

An important meeting in this regard was held here with caretaker K-P Chief Minister Justice (retd) Syed Arshad Hussain Shah in the chair.

Besides Adviser to CM on Health Dr Riaz Anwar and other high-ups of the health department, authorities of the public and private sector medical and dental colleges of the province attended the meeting.

Briefing the participants about the existing seat strengths of the dental and medical colleges and their capacities to enhance the seats, it was told that there were a total of 21 medical and 11 dental colleges in the province with an accumulative strength of 3,210 seats per annum, adding that due to such limited number of seats, every year thousands of qualified students could not get admissions in these colleges.

Talking on this occasion, the caretaker chief minister said that he had taken up the issue of enhancing seats in medical and dental colleges of the province with the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), adding that the PMDC authorities had agreed in principle to enhance the seats subject to fulfilment of the set criteria by these colleges.

He remarked that it was a golden opportunity for the medical and dental colleges to enhance the number of seats, and steps were required on an urgent basis to avail the opportunity.

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On this occasion, the management of both the public and private sector medical and dental colleges were asked to work out their capacities for seat enhancement, and communicate the same to the provincial government for taking up the same with PMDC for formal approval.

The chief minister made it clear that with the enhancement of medical and dental colleges’ seats, the set criteria and quality of education would not be compromised at any cost.

On this occasion, the participants of the meeting lauded the efforts of the chief minister for enhancement of medical and dental colleges’ seats, saying that it was a big achievement of the chief minister and a great service for the medical field of the province.

It was agreed that 20 per cent of the enhanced seats would be reserved for deserving students on scholarships.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2024.