THE government’s commitment to facilitate overseas Pakistanis seems to have more words than action, and the Citizen Portal is not helping the cause much. Despite many complaints having been lodged on the portal and Twitter messages to the relevant Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, there has been no action on the matter of reconsidering the number of reserved seats for overseas Pakistanis in public medical colleges of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.

There are only three seats for overseas Pakistanis out of a total 1,350 seats in KP. On the other hand, the number of seats sanctioned for dual nationals and foreign students is 42.

The latter are often not availed completely by foreigners and dual nationals, and are later converted to open merit seats every year. In contrast, in Punjab, the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) seats for MBBS and BDS are 76 out of 3,405 seats and there are additional 85 seats for foreign and dual nationals.

Overseas Pakistanis play a pivotal role in the economy of the county, especially those in the Middle East.

A major portion of their income is repatriated to Pakistan. The children of overseas Pakistanis in the Gulf countries have to return to Pakistan to pursue their higher education as they have little to no option abroad.

Furthermore, the IBCC equivalence formula presents yet another challenge to ‘A’ Level students as it makes it difficult for them to compete on open merit.

In view of the above, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, the provincial government, the OPF and the Higher Education Commission are requested to consider increasing the number of seats reserved for OPF in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.

Ijaz Akhtar

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2020