LAHORE, Nov 26: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) issued on Monday the first merit list of candidates for admission to 16 public sector medical colleges in Punjab.

The merit has risen by 2.16 per cent from 82.19 per cent last year to 84.36 per cent this year.

The merit has been calculated as per the weightage formula of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), adding 10 per cent of matriculation, 40 per cent of intermediate and 50 per cent of entrance test marks.

Only those candidates who had secured 80 per cent or above aggregate marks as per the PMDC formula were eligible to apply for admission on an open merit basis this year. Applications were received from Oct 31 to Nov 10.

A total of 36,100 candidates appeared in the entrance test this year. Out of these 6,737 eligible candidates applied for admission against 3,117 open merit (2,942 MBBS + 175 BDS), 61 under-developed districts (49 MBBS + 12 BDS) and 20 disabled candidates (19 MBBS + 01 BDS) seats available in 16 public sector medical and three dental colleges of the province.

The King Edward Medical University (KEMU) of Lahore remained the top choice of candidates with merit for the college closing at 90.0039 per cent. The last merit for Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, is 88.2342 per cent; Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Lahore, 87.0152 per cent; Nishtar Medical College, Multan, 86.5160 per cent; Fatima Jinnah Medical College, Lahore, 86.5108 per cent; Ammer-ud-Din Medical College, Lahore, 86.0117 per cent; Punjab Medical College, Faisalabad, 85.6926 per cent; Rawalpindi Medical College, Rawalpindi, 85.5853 per cent; Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Bahawalpur, 85.1922 per cent; Sargodha Medical College, Sargodha, 85.0225 per cent; Gujranwala Medical College, Gujranwala, 84.8823 per cent; Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan, 84.6960 per cent; Nawaz Sharif Medical College, Gujrat, 84.6926 per cent; Sahiwal Medical College, Sahiwal, 84.5519 per cent; Khawaja Mohammad Safdar Medical College, Sialkot, 84.4675 per cent and D.G. Khan Medical College, D.G. Khan, 84.3615 per cent.