LARKANA: The Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University (SMBBMU) has stopped the Ghulam Mohammed Mahar Medical College (GMMMC) principal from opening admissions in the MBBS courses for 2016-17 until a permission from the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC) is obtained.

The college in Sukkur was set to open the admissions offering more than 100 seats to the candidates who had recently passed the entry test conducted by the National Testing Service (NTS).

SMBBMU registrar Prof Dr Sikandar Mughal on Saturday confirmed to Dawn that a letter was sent to GMMMC principal on Nov 10 advising him not go ahead with the admission process before receiving a green signal from the PMDC, the regulatory body of medical education in the country.

According to sources privy to the matter, the college has already been facing the issue of registration of its 200 students and the PMDC has planned an inspection of the college upon receiving a request from the university. “The PMDC had already scheduled such a visit to evaluate the facilities available at the college and judge whether they meet the council’s criteria for recognition but the visit was cancelled at the 11th hour,” the sources said.

Now sensing something fishy, the university registrar has advised the college principal not to open new admissions.

Almost an identical situation prevails in the case of the Bibi Aseefa Dental College (BADC), Larkana, where the admission committee in its recent meeting decided to wait for PMDC approval before offering new admissions.

Chandka Medical College principal Prof Dr Sher Mohammed Shaikh heads the committee and its other members included the SMBBMU registrar and BADC principal. Sources say that during the meeting, held on Nov 19, all members except for the university registrar, were in favour of going ahead with the new intake.

However, the registrar convinced them not to open new admissions to a batch of 50 candidates till the PMDC permission was obtained.

The outcome of the Nov 24 visit to the BADC by a seven-member inspection team of the council to evaluate facilities and faculty at the institution is yet to be declared.

Students of the college had been protesting against the delay in getting PMDC recognition.

A group of the protesting students came across the PMDC team and apprised it of their uncertain future.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2016