KARACHI, June 20: The Sindh Health Department has decided to depart from the routine of exchanging medical students of the province with those of Punjab. In a meeting of the health department convened on Monday to finalize the outlines of the admission policy of medical colleges and universities in Sindh for the session 2005-06, the inter-provincial reciprocal seats between Sindh and Punjab were withdrawn.

Earlier, Sindh used to offer 10 reciprocal seats for admissions to medical colleges of Punjab. The health department in the past had been selecting candidates for nominations against reciprocal seats in Punjab and those in the Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore, on the basis of merit-cum-choice.

The meeting, which was chaired by the Sindh Health Secretary Dr Noshad A Shaikh, also decided that 30 candidates selected against merit seats of the district Thatta would be given admission at the DUHS, Karachi, while 30 applicants from Karachi would be admitted at the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro.

A source privy to the meeting said that the decision was taken to facilitate the applicants from Thatta district who found it difficult to go to other colleges of the province as those were located away from the residential vicinity.

It was also decided that the Peoples Medical College, Nawabshah, would continue to function as a female medical college. A proposal to make the college a co-education centre was disapproved at the meeting.

It was further resolved that the name of a medical college, named after the father’s name of a former chief minister be changed. It was decided to propose to the authorities to change the nomenclature of Sardar Ghulam Mohammad Khan Mehar Medical College, Sukkur, into Indus Medical College or Mehran Medical College, Sukkur.

It is likely that admission to medical colleges and universities of Sindh would begin some time in September or October, by the time health department would have finalized its preparation for the process, said the source.

Since the Bahria University has expressed its inability to conduct the entry test for MBBS and BDS admissions in future, the committee approved the name of a private testing service, which would conduct the entry test for applicants at four centres, ie Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana. The fee for the test has been fixed as Rs1, 000, said official sources.

The Dow University and Liaquat University will publish their own prospectus. Admissions would be offered at the DMC, SMC, LUMHS, Chandka Medical College, Peoples Medical College, and Sardar Ghulam Mohammad Khan Medical College.

The meeting also decided to increase the fees charged under self finance scheme. Now Local students will be charged Rs200,000 instead of Rs175,000, while foreign national students would have to pay US$6,000 for seats available at the DUHS and LUMHS and US$5,000 for admission at the PMC, Chandka Medical College and Sardar Ghulam Mohammad Khan Mehar Medical College.

The proceedings of the meeting will be forwarded to the Sindh chief minister, as part of the new admission policy, for approval and notification, it was further learnt.