THE Pakistan Medical Council (PMC) has been under criticism since its establishment, and its vague and discriminatory policies against local graduates compared to foreign medical graduates (FMGs) have exposed its inefficiency time and again.

It appears that the PMC takes local graduates for granted when the fact is that they are equally talented and well-equipped as their foreign counterparts, if not more.

The PMC made National Licensing Exam (NLE) mandatory for every medical graduate, but later released mind-boggling licencing pathways for FMGs by placing international colleges in A, B and C categories.

Under its perplexing policy, FMGs who meet a certain criteria are exempted from doing house job in Pakistan and can get full licence upon qualifying the NLE, unlike others who will be given full licence only after completion of their house job in Pakistan.

The PMC has recently approved a comprehensive syllabus of the two-step licencing exam, and has declared the qualifying marks to be 70 per cent for both Step 1 and Step 2.

This discriminatory approach towards local graduates and FMGs is disappointing. The PMC needs to introduce uniform policies for all candidates and reduce the passing marks for students.

Dr Zakaria Ahmed Jakhrani
Jacobabad

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2021