ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has decided not to register students who get admissions in private medical colleges in violation of council rules and without appearing in the centralised exams.

These students will not be given registration numbers, making it impossible for them to attend annual exams conducted by universities.

PMDC Registrar Dr Azhar Ali Shah told Dawn that as per admission policy 2013, colleges were allowed to hold entry tests and admit students on their own.

“However, we were receiving complaints that some colleges were admitting students against the merit because the students were bribing officials in the college administrations. Deserving students were suffering due to the violation of merit,” he said.

According to the 2016 policy, all students must appear in a centralised exam before they can be admitted

The council therefore introduced the admission policy 2016 according to which provincial and regional centralised entry exams were to be held and students could not be admitted into medical colleges without appearing in the centralised tests, he explained.

“However, last year the colleges said the policy came a bit late and that they had already admitted students. They went to the courts and obtained stay orders as well due to which the council decided to implement the new admissions policy from this year onwards,” Dr Shah said.

“Universities have been organising centralised exams this year such as the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University, which has been holding centralised exams for all medical colleges in Islamabad,” he said.

When asked what the status of those students who have already been accepted by some private medical colleges will be, he said these students will not be registered by the council due to which they will not be able to appear in the annual exams to be conducted by universities.

“It is in the best interests of students to consider the financial and time losses they will incur if they are not registered with the council,” he said.

A member of the council, Dr Amer Bandesha told Dawn private universities can admit students on their own but they still have to consider the centralised entry test.

“Private universities will also not be able to conduct interviews. There will now be 50 points for the centralised test, 40 for F.Sc and 10 for matric,” he said.

“We will cross check to see if students admitted into private colleges have sat the centralised test after getting a list from universities. It will be ascertained if the students were admitted on merit and only then will they be registered,” Dr Bandesha said.

PMDC President Dr Shabir Lehri in a statement said strict action will be taken against the colleges which are not following the centralised admissions policy 2016.

“The council has refrained all private medical and dental colleges from inviting applications and displaying their merit lists and has strictly directed that admissions in MBBS and BDS courses in public and private sector institutions of Pakistan shall be governed by the Admission Regulations 2016,” he said.

Dr Lehri advised all students, their parents and institutions to strictly follow the centralised provincial and regional admissions and entry test policy and all other decisions made by the PMDC.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2017