ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has announced National Examination Board (NEB) schedule for Pakistani nationals having foreign basic medical qualifications.

NEB is conducted by PMDC for those medical graduates who have passed their exams from abroad. The exam was started following complaints that doctors who study in languages other than English face problem in treating patients. Moreover there were also complaints about the quality of education.

In 2012 through an act of parliament it was made mandatory for foreign graduates to pass NEB.

However some postgraduate qualifications like diploma of American Board, FRCS (UK) or equivalent are exempted from NEB.

During the last four years, foreign graduates have held protests against the council and alleged that it was involved in corruption and nepotism during NEB exams which are based on three steps.

Acting PMDC registrar Dr Syed Azhar Ali Shah has stated that the last date for submission of application for Step-I exam is Feb 13 and the exam will be held on March 16.

“For Step-II, candidates can submit applications from March 27 to April 3, and the exam will be held on May 4. For Step-III, the application can be submitted from May 15 to 24th. The exam will be held on July 8 and 9th,” he said.

PMDC President Prof Dr Shabir Lehri said the format of NEB exam had been changed to make the examination more transparent.

“Exam of first two steps will be based on MCQs, whereas Step-III format shall remain the same as approved by the council,” he said.

Dr Lehri said the council had introduced a new challan form system for candidates for which they have to visit PMDC’s website and follow the instructions to fill the challan and submit the fee. Fee in the form of drafts will not be acceptable any more, he said.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2017