Introducing merit: PMDC demands allotted seats

KARACHI: Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) president Professor Masood Hameed Khan said the government should allocate 51 per cent of the seats in medical and dental colleges to women and 49 per cent to men under the open merit policy.

While talking to media at the Dow University of Health and Sciences on Monday, Prof Masood said that there is a shortage of doctors in health departments and that currently there are 65 to 70 per cent women enrolled in medical and dental colleges.

He also said unfortunately a large number of women become unable to continue working after marriage and due other family obligations and in some cases, are unable to work evening shifts at healthcare centres. This causes the government to lose millions of rupees which its spends on training doctors, he explained.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2014.