PESHAWAR, March 5: Allocation of reserved seats for the students of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) in the medical colleges of the country failed to achieve the desired results, official sources told Dawn on Wednesday.
“The government had allocated reserved seats for the students of Fata to provide health facilities to the people of tribal areas. The strategy has not brought the desired results,” said sources in the health department. According to them, soon after the establishment of the Khyber Medical College in mid-1950s, the federal government had allocated special seats for the students of Fata.
The idea behind the allocation of seats was that once these students did graduation from the KMC, they would be posted in their respective tribal agencies to serve their own people.
But so far, thousands of doctors belonging to Fata had graduated on the reserved seats, but very few of them had served in their own areas.
According to sources, the government had initially allocated 90 seats for the students of Fata. The reserved seats were distributed among the students on the basis of the population of their respective agencies.
Sources also said that the facility had been grossly misused by the people who were born in settled areas but obtained a Fata domicile on which they sought admission to the medical colleges.
Last year, the then NWFP governor, himself a resident of Orakzai Agency of Fata, ordered increase in reserved seats for the tribal students from 90 to 125. Sources said that the enhancement of seats was triggered by the establishment of more medical colleges in the province.
Besides, the Fata students had also been given a quota of 64 seats in the medical colleges of other provinces since the 1950 to develop the backward tribal areas.
Sources said that most of the students who were admitted on the reserved seats, had never visited Fata, rather their forefathers had lived there long ago, which enabled them to get domicile certificates and admission in medical college.
A few years back, some students submitted a petition with the court arguing that they had passed FSc from the institutions located inside Fata, whereas other students who were admitted on reserved seats on the basis of their domiciles had received education in the settled areas.
They had argued that they could not compete with the students who had obtained their education in reputed institutions of settled areas. They demanded priority in admission on reserved students.
Sources said that following the court’s verdict some 10 per cent of the reserved seats were then allotted to the students who had completed their education from the institutes located inside Fata. While the same number of seats were allotted for the students, who had received their education partly from Fata.
The rest of the reserved quota of seats is still availed by the students studying in the schools and colleges located in settled areas.
Citing examples, sources said that of the 66 consultants, 435 medical officers (male), 48 medical officers (female) and 28 sanctioned posts of dental surgeons in seven tribal agencies of Fata, only 83 per cent remained occupied. Of the total 577 doctors, only a few belonged to Fata.
They said that those students were bound to serve in Fata hospitals after graduation at least for a period of two years, but only a few served in Fata while a large number didn’t bother to go there.
Sources said that those reserved seats had been massively misused by the people living outside Fata. Besides medical colleges, the federal government has also reserved quota for Fata students in all institutions of the country.
But the benefit is yet to trickle down to the four million people of Fata, who have to take their patients to Peshawar and other cities even for minor ailments.