KARACHI, Aug 4: The process of admission to the first year MBBS and BDS classes at the five government-run medical institutions in the province will start with the sale of prospectus and application forms on August 10.
Though no cut in seats for BDS classes has been effected, MBBS seats, like previous years, once again have been curtailed to 1,138, which include 887 merit seats for candidates domiciled in Sindh.
The number of overall seats have been reduced gradually for the last some years under instruction of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, said a health department official, adding that most probably slashing in the number of seats would continue for another year.
The breakdown of seats being offered for admission to MBBS classes for the year 2002-03 is: Dow Medical College: 292 (222 merit), Sindh Medical College: 221 (151 merit), Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS): 280 (227 merit), Chandka Medical College: 202 (156 merit), People’s Medical College: 135 (92 merit).
The BDS education is provided at LUMHS and a total of 65 seats, including 36 merit seats for candidates domiciled in Sindh, have been allocated for the year. There is no change in admission rules and regulations, while different fees, including that for tuition and admissions, would remain the same both for MBBS and BDS courses.
Sources said that in line with a Supreme Court decision, the reserve seats for doctors’ children, wards of employees of the health department and defence services personnel once again had been abolished like last year. However, seats for FATA, Northern Areas/Azad Kashmir, Afghan refugees and the disabled students of Sindh would stand valid for the year.
There is no change in the allocation of seats for foreign nationals, overseas and local students applying under the self- finance schemes. A total of 115 seats - 23 each at the five medical institutions - are being offered under the self-finance scheme, while fees for the scheme would also remain unchanged.
The health department official was tight-lipped about the agencies conducting the entrance tests, but mentioned that at least IBA was in the run.
“In response to our advertisement, some of the private and government organizations have shown interest in regard to the entrance test,” the official said, indicating that the health department was in negotiation with certain private organizations and if things did not go in a positive direction it would have to entrust the job to one of its own educational institutions.
Additional secretary, health, Dr Iqbal Daudpota, said schedule of admissions had been finalized, following an assurance by the educational boards that the intermediate annual examination results would be announced latest by August 7. He said Sindh would be the first province to launch admissions in the medical colleges for the year 2002-03.
He said the department would do away with the practice of reducing seats every year as soon as it succeeded in meeting the PMDC requirement. “We will have to go for a total of 950 MBBS seats in the five medical institutions as per requirement,” he observed.
The schedule of admissions to first year MBBS and BDS courses is as follows: Date of inviting applications: August 10; last date for receiving applications: Aug 31; entrance test: September 15; display of provisional merit lists of district seats: October 5; inviting objections to the provisional merit lists: October 16; display of the final merit list: October 20; start of classes: November 1.
The district-wise breakdown of merit seats in case of MBBS admissions is as follows: Karachi: 373, Hyderabad: 100, Sukkur:21, Ghotki:20, Shikarpur: 26, Larkana: 45, Dadu: 40, Jacobabad: 30, Khairpur: 32, Nawabshah: 29, Naushehro Feroze: 32, Mirpurkhas: 29, Tharparkar: 19, Sanghar: 32, Thatta: 30, and Badin: 29.
Sources said though admissions on reciprocal seats were not effected last year due to some reservations of the Punjab government, Sindh has once again allocated seats on the reciprocal basis.
The Sindh health department has written a letter to the Punjab health department, seeking clarification about its position on the issue. But, so far, no response has been received, added the sources.