GILGIT: The opposition lawmakers and students have rejected the Punjab government’s decision to reduce the MBBS seats for GB students in the public sector medical and dental colleges of the province.

They threatened that a protest call would be given across the country if the decision was not reversed.

The Punjab government recently reduced reserved seats in the province’s medical and dental colleges for GB students from 64 to 60.

PML-N GB Assembly member Ghulam Mohammad said the Punjab government’s decision to reduce medical seats for GB students was unjustified.

He asked the GB chief minister to take up the matter with his Punjab counterpart.

He said the pervious PML-N, PML-Q and PPP governments in Punjab had increased GB students’ seats in medical colleges, but the ‘selected’ PTI government had discriminated against the GB students.

PPP lawmaker Sadia Danish said the decision was an attack on GB’s future.

She said GB medical and engineering students had to study in other provinces as the region had no medical and engineering college.

She said PPP’s Sindh government had recently increased GB medical and engineering seats in the province on the direction of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Ms Danish said the decision to reduce MBBs seats in Punjab showed that PTI government was not interested in resolving the GB people’s issues.

Meanwhile, the GB students also launched a campaign on social media about the issue with #restoreMBBSseatsforGBians” hashtag.

Naveed Ali Shamoon, a student from GB posted: “Reducing the number of seats allotted to Gilgit-Baltistan students in medical colleges across Punjab is a regrettable and shameful act which is strongly condemned.”

“We are forced to seek education in the other cities of Pakistan because GB lacks higher education institutions. Instead of gifting us medical and engineering colleges the already reserved seats for GB students have been reduced,” he lamented.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2021