ISLAMABAD: As many as 2,478 medical graduates holding degrees from foreign countries sat the National Examination Board (NEB) exam on Thursday.

The exam was conduced by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) in collaboration with the National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS).

The NEB exam was introduced because of complaints that medical graduates who studied in languages other than English faced problems in treating patients. Moreover, there were also complaints about the quality of their medical education.

In 2012 through an Act of parliament it was made mandatory for foreign graduates have pass the NEB test before being allowed to practice in the country.

However, the Diploma of American Board, FRCS (UK) or equivalent postgraduate qualifications are exempted from the exam.

During the last four years, a number of times the foreign graduates held protests and accused the PMDC of corruption and nepotism in the NEB exams.

Registrar PMDC Dr Syed Azhar Ali Shah said the NEB examination was held at two centres on Thursday: Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

As many as 701 candidates appeared in the test held at the Army Medical College Rawalpindi and 17,77 at the Pak-China Friendship Centre Islamabad.

The result will be announced on March 24 on the official websites of NUMS and the PMDC.

He said a NEB committee, PMDC members and representatives from the Ministry of National Health Services were invited to monitor the exam.

PMDC President Prof Shabbir Lehri said transparency and fairness in the exam was the top priority of the council.

In this regard, he added, all possible measures had been taken in consultation with all the stakeholders.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017