ISLAMABAD: Despite claims made by the health ministry and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), fees of medical colleges may not be rationalised as the matter is still under discussion in the academic board of the PMDC.

On the other hand, parents of students, who were expecting that the fees will be reduced, have appealed to the caretaker prime minister and the chief justice of Pakistan to take notice.

The committee established on the directions of Health Minister Dr Nadeem Jan had suggested that the maximum fee should be Rs1.9 million per annum. Dr Jan rejected the suggestion and directed it to further decrease the fee. However, colleges increased the fees much more than Rs1.9 million.

As per documents available with Dawn, the annual fee of Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College Lahore was around Rs1.8 million for MBBS, but for the upcoming year it will charge over Rs2.6 million. HBS Medical and Dental College Islamabad will charge over Rs2.2 million compared to Rs1.55 million for the current year. Foundation University Medical College has fixed its fee at Rs1.6 million against Rs1.58 million last year. CMH Lahore Medical and Dental College and Institute of Dentistry Lahore (MBBS) have announced to charge Rs2.2 million compared to Rs1.75 million for the current year.

Shalamar Medical and Dental College will charge Rs2.1 million compared to Rs1.65 million for the current year. Islamabad Medical and Dental College has been charging Rs1.6 million for the current year’s MBBS programme but it has now increased the fee to Rs2.1 million for the next year.

Shifa College of Medicine Islamabad has increased its fee from Rs1.4 million to Rs1.7 million while Aga Khan University Karachi was charging Rs2.6 million for the current year and has announced to increase it to over Rs3 million.

Fazaia Medical College Islamabad has increased the fee from Rs1.4 million to Rs1.6 million while Rehman Medical College Peshawar has increased the fee from Rs1.5 million to Rs1.7 million.

An official of the health ministry, requesting not to be quoted, said that the matter was still under discussion in the academic board of the PMDC. He said once rationalisation of fees will be decided, the matter will be referred to the council for a final decision.

He said Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Health Dr Amir Bilal was also looking into the issue.

“Dr Bilal joined on November 26 as the special assistant to PM and suggested that the colleges should be categorised and there should be separate maximum limit of fee for each category. Dr Bilal has stated that the current fee of medical colleges was too much but he is of the opinion that it is the domain of the PMDC and it should rationalise the fee,” he said.

A citizen, Shahid Nazir, said that the fee of medical colleges had gone beyond the limit of parents. He said a number of colleges were going to start classes from Feb 1 but due to general elections they will start classes from Feb 12.

He appealed to caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar and Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa to take notice.

Health Minister Dr Nadeem Jan, while talking to Dawn, also said the fee was exorbitant. “However, PMDC has been working on it and I hope a decision will be made soon,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2024