December 18, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 13, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Dec 17: Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has warned Hamdard College of Medicine and Dentistry (HCMD) against making fresh enrolments for the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) for the session 2003 till removal of the shortcomings earlier pointed out by the council.

Through a notice issued on December 16 to the Vice Chancellor of the Hamdard University, the PM&DC has cautioned that it will not register the students till removal of the shortcomings pointed out by the council through a June 29, 2002 notice.

The fresh notice has been issued in response to an advertisement published in an Urdu Daily on December 15 in which admissions were invited for the MBBS and BDS programme session 2003.

The PM&DC has also issued a list of 10 colleges, which have been barred from admitting students in the BDS programme. The list includes Fatima Jinnah Dental College Karachi, Baqai Dental College Karachi, Hamdard College of Dentistry, Karachi, Jinnah Medical and Dental College, Karachi, Liaquat Ali Khan Memorial College of Dentistry, Karachi, Lahore Medical and Dental College Lahore, Sardar Begum Dental College/GIMS Peshawar, Dental Section Islamic International Medical College, Rawalpindi, Margalla College of Dentistry, Rawalpindi and Islamabad Medical and Dental College, Islamabad.

In an announcement, the council has asked the intending students to ascertain the status of the dental institutions from the PM&DC secretariat or from its website www.pmdc.org.pk. before getting admission.

Meanwhile, Hayat Mohammad Bhatti, the media officer of the HCMD, when contacted conceded that the PM&DC had not allowed the institution to admit students. However, the permission had been granted to initiate MBBS classes for session 2003, he said.

About the recognition criterion, a PM&DC source said the medical colleges were required to submit a comprehensive feasibility report including information about relevant documents of ownership, possession and plan of academic blocks, adequate physical facilities for academic blocks, dissection halls, common rooms, cafeteria, medical/dental equipment related to laboratories, libraries, different models and information technology.

He said the college must be financially viable and the financial resources should be clearly indicated according to the level, size and type of the institution. He said the faculty of the college should be qualified and employed full time. Besides, he added,the curriculum vitae (CVs) of every faculty member and staff should be made available to the PM&DC for scrutiny with terms of reference of employment.

He said adequate transport facilities for students, teachers and staff must be available keeping in mind locality of the institutions, number of students and other logistics besides the library should be well equipped with latest editions of reference books and journals.