PESHAWAR, Nov 24: Students on merit list for admission to the medical colleges in the province have criticized what they called the double advantage given to female students.

The rule of merit would be violated because girl students who do not manage to get admission to the main campus of the Khyber Medical College (KMC) would get admitted to the separate women campus of the KMC establishment by the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government, said Abid Khan, a parent.

The students waiting for admission to the medical colleges and their parents have called it a violation of merit and appealed to NWFP Governor Iftikhar Hussain Shah and Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani to look into the matter.

The total number of seats at KMC's main campus is 181. When the merit list was displayed, 78 male and 62 female students were admitted to the main campus. The remaining male students on the merit had the option to get admitted to the Ayub Medical College in Abbottabad, Gomal Medical College in Dera Ismail Khan and Saidu Sharif Medical College in Swat.

The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government established the girls' campus of the Khyber Medical College (KMC) with 40 seats at Hayatabad. "Those female medical students, who do not like to study under the co-education system, would be able to study in women's medical college," NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan had said when the campus was inaugurated in August last.

The separate girls' campus was called a branch of the KMC, a medical college recognized by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, as the campus itself did not fulfil the criteria of the PMDC.

The female students, who would be even below the male students in the merit list, would have the advantage to opt for the women campus of the KMC whereas the male students on merit, who are not able to get admission to the KMC, would have no other option but to get admission to other medical colleges in other cities of the province.

"The allocation of 40 seats has disturbed the merit list, thus, depriving the deserving students of admission to the KMC," said Fayaz Khan, a parent. The parents and the students expressed their disapproval on the situation where girls below in the merit list would be getting admission at the separate campus of the KMC whereas the male students having better merit would have to opt for other medical colleges than the KMC as the seats in the KMC main campus were filled.

Another parent complained that when he took the prospectus for his daughter's admission he was not informed that his daughter would be admitted to a separate campus. The main campus of the KMC has its own charm for the students.

Andaleeb, a female student, said most of the female students wanted to study in the main campus of the KMC and nobody wanted to go to the women's separate campus. The provincial government established separate women's campus of the KMC with the hope that when it would fulfil major requirements like a suitable site, a proper building and full-time teaching staff and other conditions of the PMDC then it would be turned into a women's medical university.

However, sources told Dawn that fulfilling the PMDC's criteria within a year as claimed by the MMA government earlier was a Herculean job and girls campus could lead to the undoing of recognition of the KMC.

The provincial government had allocated Rs167 million for the girls campus to be housed in a rented building at Hayatabad where initially 40 female medical students would be admitted.

So far, only three female students, who got admission to the KMC, have opted for studying medicine in the separate women's campus. The majority is happy to study in the main campus in the mixed environment, said Nasir, another newly-admitted KMC medical student.

Some 62 female students, who were on the merit list, were accommodated in KMC's main campus whereas 40 would be inducted in the separate girls' campus, though they might be below the male candidates in the merit list. Thus, the girl's students outnumbered the male students at the KMC.

"The girls' campus has been opened in a hurry. The site and the building are not suitable to house a campus of a medical college," opined a doctor presently teaching at the KMC.

"The girls and boys hostels, bus service and canteens were already separate at the KMC and they sat separately during their classes. So, it was useless to open a separate girls' campus without making proper arrangements first.

The girls' medical students will have to go to mixed hospitals for their three-year clinical work. Hence, it's no use to open a separate campus," another doctor from the teaching faculty of the KMC observed.

The MMA government had earlier said it would appoint fresh faculty members for the separate girls' campus before the commencement of new session in December and the qualified professors and lecturers from the KMC would also take classes in the separate campus for which they would be paid honoraria.

The sources in the KMC said there were already vacancies in medical and surgical staff at the KMC and the PMDC had directed the KMC to fulfil these vacancies to make available a full-time qualified staff to the college, which is a major criterion of the PMDC.

"It would be difficult for us to ensure that only female teachers are appointed in the girls' campus because it is not practically possible," sources said.