KARACHI, June 26: The Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, has asked the Sindh health department to convene a meeting of heads of all the government-run medical colleges and universities in the province at the earliest to finalise an admission policy pertaining to the MBBS and BDS programmes and the relevant schedules.

Talking to Dawn on Thursday, the special secretary of the health department, Dr Shafqat H. Abbasi, said that the chief minister wanted a uniform policy for admissions to the MBBS and BDS programmes at all the government medical colleges of the province.

He said that the chief minister had also expressed his desire that the entrance tests already scheduled for some colleges be put on hold for some time.

Dr Abbasi said that a meeting of the ministers of health and education departments, chief secretary, vice-chancellors of government medical universities, secretaries of the health and education departments and principals of medical colleges would be called shortly to ensure a uniform admission procedure all across the province.

The chief minister has also taken notice of entry tests being conducted by the Dow University of Health Sciences much before the declaration of intermediate examination results, and desired that the test be delayed till the announcements of HSC (pre-medical) results so that only those students meeting the requirements of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) took the entrance tests.

Under the rules, a candidate having secured 60 per cent or more marks in HSC or equivalent examinations was eligible to apply for admission and to appear in the entry test, Dr Abbasi said, adding that the government medical colleges in the province were affiliated with two universities and as such there was a need for some universal criterion duly approved by the Sindh chief minister regarding admissions, entry tests and examinations.

A senior official from one of the universities said that there had been precedence that the Sindh health department convened consultation meetings of the heads of medical education institutions every year for a consensus in the formulation of admission policy, number of merit seats, self-financed seats and reciprocal seats, dates of entry tests, commencement of new academic sessions.

The recommendations coming out of the said meetings used to be forwarded to the chief minister in the shape of admission policy for a final approval and authenticity.

Another official said that the admission policy in medical colleges had been purely a domain of the chief minister as at least, 70 per cent of the budgetary needs of the medical colleges and universities were provided by the Sindh government.

It was further learnt that the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, which catered to five medical and dental education colleges, had planned to hold its entry test sometime in September, while the DUHS with three affiliated medical and dental education colleges in Karachi had announced to hold the entrance test on June 29.

The Dow University has already issued about 5,000 admit cards, about one thousand more than the last year.

Talking to Dawn, the coordinator of the DUHS admission programme, Dr Rana Qamar, said that the applicants mostly included those who were the candidates of HSC annual examination, 2008.

She said that as against the previous practice, this year admission tests were being planned before even the declaration of HSC results only to improve their quality and management and also to ensure that the admission process got finalised well in advance before the commencement of first semester of the DUHS medical programmes, which as per an earlier decision would commence in September.

She said that only those who would secure 60 per cent or more marks in the HSC examination would be included in the merit list for admissions.