LAHORE, Sept 25: The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has rejected the government’s new policy for admission to medical colleges in Punjab, demanding doing away with the entrance test.

PMA secretary-general Dr Azeemuddin Zahid told Dawn on Monday that it would be rather unfair for students of backward areas to compete with the developed ones to get admission to medical colleges through entrance test.

“It has been a longstanding demand of the PMA to abolish entrance test to provide a level playing-field to all FSc students across the province,” he said and added that the government should improve intermediate board marking system instead of imposing it.

Dr Azim said increase in quota seats would be exploited by influential people and there should be no seats reserved for self-finance. The PMA, however, appreciated the increase in seats for Balochistan and the government’s decision for not raising the fee, he added.

Meanwhile, the Islami Jamiat Tulaba has expressed mixed reaction.

In a statement issued here on Monday, IJT north Punjab nazim Namir Hasan Madni and south Punjab nazim Allah Bakhsh Leghari lauded the CM for increasing the number of seats. However, they criticised the government for continuing with the entrance test and self-finance scheme.

They said the entrance test showed government’s lack of confidence on its own education and examination system. They demanded that the government should abolish the system and convert all self-finance scheme seats into open merit seats so that every student could compete for them.

They also demanded that the government should also review the medical colleges’ fees.