LAHORE: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Thursday issued the first selection list of the candidates admitted to MBBS in Punjab’s public sector medical colleges for 2014-15 session.

The King Edward Medical University (KEMU) again topped among public sector medical institutions in the province in the choice list of candidates for admission.

Surprisingly, the UHS witnessed a rare decline in the merit which has gone down from 86.1818pc of last year to 85.6411pc this year. For the last several years, there has been a steady increase in the merit.

The merit was calculated as per the ‘weightage’ formula of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), adding 10pc of matriculation, 40pc of intermediate and 50pc of entrance test marks.

Only those candidates who secured 82pc or above aggregate marks as per PMDC formula were eligible to apply for admission on open merit basis this year. Applications were received from September 23 to October 2.

A total of 44,243 candidates appeared in the entrance test this year. Out of these, 6,820 eligible candidates applied for admission against 3,197 open merit (3022 MBBS + 175 BDS), 61 under-developed districts’ (49 MBBS +12 BDS) and 20 disabled candidates (19 MBBS + 1 BDS) seats available in 17 public sector medical and three dental colleges of the province.

The KEMU, Lahore, has always remained the top choice of candidates with merit for the college closing at 90.2926pc. The last merit for the Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC), Lahore is 88.9372pc, Services Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMC), Lahore, 88.1035pc, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Medical College (SKBZAMC), Lahore, 87.4277pc, Fatima Jinnah Medical College (FJMC), Lahore, 87.3017pc, Nishtar Medical College (NMC), Multan, 87.0970pc, Ammer-ud-Din Medical College, Lahore, 87.0848pc, Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC), Rawalpindi, 86.5835pc, Punjab Medical College (PMC), Faisalabad, 86.5048pc, Gujranwala Medical College (GMC), Gujranwala, 86.2303pc, Quaid-e-Azam Medical College (QMC), Bahawalpur, 86.1515pc, Sargodha Medical College (SMC), Sargodha, 86.0762pc, Nawaz Sharif Medical College, Gujrat, 85.8939pc, Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal, 85.7874pc, Khawaja Mohammad Safdar Medical College, Sialkot, 85.7589pc, Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan, 85.7074pc and DG Khan Medical College, DG Khan 85.6411pc.

The distribution of 3,022 open merit MBBS seats is as follows: KEMU (302), AIMC (301), NMC, Multan (280), FJMCW, Lahore (206), Services Institute of Medical Sciences (191), PMC, Faisalabad (287), RMC, Rawalpindi, (297), QMC, Bahawalpur (273), Sheikh Zayed Medical College Rahim Yar Khan (126), SMC, Sargodha (79), Nawaz Sharif Medical College Gujrat (90), Sahiwal Medical College (100), Gujranwala Medical College (100), Khawaja Muhammad Safdar Medical College, Sialkot (100), Ameer-ud-Din Medical College / Lahore General Hospital Lahore (100), DG Khan Medical College (100) and SKBZAMC, Lahore (90).

A total of 115 candidates applied for admission against 20 seats reserved for disabled students. They were examined by specialist medical boards, constituted under the law, from October 13 to October 16. After examination, 66 candidates were declared disabled for the purpose of admission. The last merit in this category is 71.7273pc.

For admission against 61 seats reserved for the students of six under-developed districts -- Muzzafargarh, Rajanpur, Lodhran, Bhakkar, Layyah and DG Khan, a total of 604 applications were received. The last merit for MBBS in this category is as follows: Muzaffargarh 85.6156pc, Rajanpur (Tribal Area) 50.0156pc, Rajanpur (settled area) 85.2658pc, Lodhran 85.3667pc, Bhakkar 84.9857pc, Layyah 85.5550pc and DG Khan (Tribal Area) 82.1797pc and DG Khan (Settled Area) 85.5939pc. The merit for one seat reserved for Cholistan is 76.3225pc.

All the lists are available on UHS website www.uhs.edu.pk.

The selected candidates will be issued call letters by the respective colleges. The MBBS classes in the public sector medical colleges will commence on Nov 17.

The second selection list for MBBS will be displayed on Nov 28, whereas first selection list for BDS will be displayed in Dec 10.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2014