THE non-implementation of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) decision regarding the capping of tuition fees by private medical colleges is an issue affecting thousands of medical and dental students across the country. In April last year, the PMDC had formally capped the tuition fee for medical and dental prog-rammes at Rs1.8 million per annum for all sessions. The decision further allowed a maximum increase of five per cent for the 2025 session, with subsequent annual increases linked strictly to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate from the 2026 session onwards. The decision was duly notified and is publicly available on the PMDC website.

However, several private medical colleges are openly defying the PMDC directive, and continue to charge exorbitant fee above the prescribed cap. Alarmingly, some institutions have now resorted to withholding official fee vouchers, instead instructing their students to deposit the fee directly via online transfers or pay orders, an approach that lacks trans-parency, accountability and legal clarity. Such practices place families under immense financial pressure, and under-mine regulatory oversight.

A formal complaint has already been lodged with the PMDC portal, but no visible enforcement action has followed. Regulatory decisions, once approved at the highest level, must not remain symbolic. PMDC must ensure immediate compliance by all private institutions and take strict action against institutions that continue to violate its notified fee structure.

Medical education in Pakistan is already financially burdensome. PMDC’s failure to enforce its own decisions only deepens inequality and erodes public trust in regulatory institutions. Timely intervention is essential to protect students, uphold the rule of law, and, indeed, to preserve the credibility of medical education reforms.

Name withheld on request
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2026