No space in Pakistani colleges for rescued medical students

Some 400 medical students who were rescued from rioting in Kyrgyzstan are unlikely to get into Pakistani colleges.

LAHORE: Some 400 Pakistani medical students who were rescued from violent ethnic rioting in Kyrgyzstan in June appear unlikely to succeed in their bid to get seats at medical colleges in Pakistan.

Officials responsible for medical education in Pakistan say these students likely fall below admissions criteria for Pakistani universities. The students say the prime minister is reneging on a promise to create space for all of them at local medical colleges.

Mustafa, who studied at Osh State University, said he had been contacted by the authorities concerned and told he could not be admitted to a Pakistani medical college.

He said the government had promised in mid-June to find the medical students places in Pakistani universities. “The government has backed down from its promise,” he said.

Dr Muhammad Naeem, the registrar of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), said that the council had received a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office asking whether the medical syllabus in Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan was significantly different, and whether there was an immigration agreement between the two countries.

“There is a hell of a difference between the medical syllabi at Osh State University and here,” said Dr Naeem. He estimated that out of every 100 graduate of Kyrgyz medical schools who sat the PMDC’s medical licensing exam, only two passed. He added that there was no immigration agreement between the two countries.

The students from Kyrgyzstan will have to sit the National Examination Board test in order to apply for admission to medical colleges in the Punjab, said Muhammad Atif, the communications director of the University of Health Sciences (UHS), which administers exams at all but two medical colleges in the Punjab.

Dr Waseem Changwani, who handles applications to Osh State University from Pakistan, said that he was trying to convince the students to return as the situation in Osh had returned to normal. He said the riots were caused by tensions between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks and did not target Pakistanis, though one student had been killed.

He too said that the prime minister had promised the students that they would be able to finish their degrees in Pakistan.

Iftikhar Gujjar, a student from Mirpurkhas who was among the 400 rescued back in June, said he did not know what to do as he dared not return to Kyrgyzstan to resume his fourth year at Osh State University.

“I can never forget the riots, the beheadings. Those terrible scenes still haunt me. Even if I go back, I don’t know if I will be able to study,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2010.