ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) registered 15 new public and private medical and dental colleges over the last five years, according to documents submitted to the Pakistan Information Commission.

The PMDC documents reveal that 11 of the newly registered institutions are in the public sector, while four are privately owned.

The records were provided by a PMDC legal officer in response to a commission request for details on medical and dental colleges registered over the past seven years. However, the submitted list indicates all 15 approvals occurred strictly within a five-year timeframe.

The documents also highlight a disparity in enrolment capacities between the two sectors. While the majority of the public colleges are authorised to admit 50 students per academic session, all four private colleges were granted permission to enrol 100 students each.

The four private institutions registered are the NUST School of Health Sciences in Islamabad, Bahria University College of Medicine in Islamabad, Abu Umara Medical and Dental College in Lahore and Akhtar Saeed Medical and Dental College in Rawalpindi.

The six public medical colleges added to the registry include Narowal Medical College in Narowal, Liaquat Institute of Medical and Health Sciences in Thatta, Jhalawan Medical College in Khuzdar, Loralai Medical College in Loralai, Makran Medical College in Turbat and Khairpur Medical College in Khairpur.

Additionally, five public dental colleges were registered. They are the School of Dentistry at Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University in Islamabad, CMH Institute of Medical Sciences Dental College in Multan, Rahbar College of Dentistry in Lahore, the dental college at Niazi Medical and Dental College in Sargodha and Saidu Dental College in Swat.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2026