KARACHI, Aug 8: The total number of MBBS and BDS seats at the government-run medical colleges and universities in the province will remain unchanged for the year 2003-2004, admission process for which will start with the availability of prospectus and application forms on Aug 11.

Though the Sindh government has established a new medical college at Sukkur, ie Sukkur Medical College (SKMC), which is likely to be functional from the ensuing academic session, there will be no additional allocation of seats for it.

According to official sources, the government had planned to offer a total of 1,140 seats, including 897 allocated under merit, which is almost same as the last year’s allocation. A total of 73 merit and 10 self-finance seats would be offered at the SKMC and candidates from Sukkur, Ghotki and Khairpur districts would be admitted there, said a document of the Sindh Health department.

Additional secretary, Health, Dr Iqbal Daudpota, said that the government was all set to make functional the SKMC with the induction of first batch of the MBBS students from the year 2003-2004. He said that it was not thought necessary to add new seats to the college, but adjustments had been made by slashing the number of seats available for admission at the Chandka Medical College, Larkana.

To another question he said the practice of reducing gradually the number of seats as per requirement of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council had been done away with this year, as the government understood that the existing number of MBBS seats, offered at its different colleges, were manageable and almost in line with the PMDC requirements.

He said that classes for the newly-admitted batches at six medical colleges would start from Oct 15, and as such the health department was able to advance the session further. Last year, teaching for the first year classes had commenced on November 1, he added.

He said that in line with a decision of the Supreme Court, ban on reserve seats for doctors’ children, wards of employees of the provincial health department and defence services personnel would continue. However, seats for FATA, Northern Areas, Azad Kashmir, Afghan refugees and the disabled students of Sindh, would remain valid for this year as well, he pointed out.

Dr Iqbal said that every applicant would be required to appear in the Entrance Test (ET), which would be conducted by the Bahria University at three different centres in the province on September 14. Entry test marks make 50 per cent of the overall merit, while 40 per cent of intermediate examination and 10 per cent of matriculation or equivalent examination marks.

While claiming that no increase in fees had been made for the merit seats, he informed that an annual increase of Rs 25,000 had been approved by the government for the students getting admissions under self-finance seats.

The schedule of admissions to first year MBBS and BDS courses is as follows: Date of inviting applications for merit and self finance seats, August 11; last date for receiving applications,August 30; Entrance Test, Sep 14; display of provisional merit lists of district seats on Sep 24; inviting objection to the provisional merit list, Sep 30; display of the final list, Oct 6.

The breakdown seats being offered for admission to MBBS classes for year 2003-2004 is: Dow Medical College Karachi- 292 (236 merit seats), Sindh Medical College Karachi-231 (176 merit), Liaquat University of Medical and Health Science Hyderabad-280 (227 merit), Chandka Medical College Larkana-124 (83 merit), Peoples Medical College Nawabshah-130 (92 merit) and Sukkur Medical College Sukkur-83 (73 merit).

The district-wise division of merit seats in case of MBBS admissions is: Karachi-373, Hyderabad-100, Sukkur-21, Ghotki-20, Shikarpur-26, Larkana-45, Dadu-40, Jacobabad-30, Khairpur-32, Nawabshah-29, Naushehro Feroze-32, Mirpurkhas-29, Tharparkar-19, Sanghar-32, Thatta-30 and Badin-29, as mentioned in the prospectus approved by the Sindh government.

In all BDS, 36 merit seats would be available at LUMHS for candidates domiciled in Sindh, while another 29 seats are reserved for foreign national, FATA, Afghan refugees, self-finance.

In the MBBS category, a total of 115 seats, including 23 each at DMC and SMC, have been allocated for local students, while another 18 for overseas Pakistanis and 36 for foreign nationals.