PESHAWAR, Aug 19: The government has decided in principle to do away with the self-finance scheme in all the medical colleges of the province. The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting presided over by NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah here at the Governor's House on Thursday.

Before implementing the decision, however, a committee will be constituted to look into it's financial implications, mainly its impact on the financial position of the respective colleges.

The proposed committee will also review the fee structure and suggest necessary changes. The meeting also discussed distribution of seats reserved for FATA candidate among Agencies/FRs on the basis of population; distribution of reserved seats for medical colleges and formulation of comprehensive policy for admission of FATA candidates to various medical colleges.

The Khyber Medical College and Ayub Medical College each will have 36 and Saidu Medical College and Gomal Medical College will have seven and six FATA reserved seats respectively.

The governor described the self-finance scheme as 'detrimental to the quality of education'. "We should get rid of the scheme at the earliest in the larger interest of the educational system," he added.

He said that self-finance scheme in the public sector universities of the province had already been stopped and a similar decision with regard to medical colleges had also become imperative, because it would certainly improve both the system and standard of education.

About creat in ga balance between the FATA reserved seats in different medical colleges, the governor stressed that there must be a rational approach in this regard and the entire burden should not be put on a single institution, rather it should be distributed among all the colleges with equal proportion on the basis of total seats.

The governor said that opening of new degree colleges in FATA was being given priority besides efforts to raise their educational standard, so as the tribal students could also be provided an environment to have quality education. The number of colleges in the FATA, he added, had since reached34, including ten women colleges and as planned would reach 50 during a couple of years.

The meeting was attended by the Minister for Health Inayatullah Khan, acting principal of Khyber Medical College Dr Abdul Wadood, principal of Ayub Medical College Dr Mohammad Ayub, principal of Gomal Medical College Dr Hamayoon Shah, principal of Saidu Medical College Dr Aziz Khan and principal of Khyber College of Dentistry Dr Abdul Salam.