LAHORE, April 30: An eight-member committee of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has recommended changes to weightage formula for admission to public sector medical and dental colleges across the country.
The council will take the final decision.
The committee members, mostly heads of leading medical institutions, were taken from all four provinces.
The newly proposed formula gives 50 per cent weightage to FSc and 50 per cent to entrance test marks.
The pattern was the same which had been introduced for the first time in Punjab in 1998.
It would be the first-ever uniform weightage scheme applicable to all the four provinces for admission to the government medical institutions.
Earlier, all the provinces had been following the different patterns of weightage which had not only triggered controversy with regard to admissions to medical colleges but was also challenged in courts.
The committee which recommended new pattern to the PMDC for adoption from this year was headed by then vice chancellor of University of Health Sciences (UHS) Prof Dr Malik Husain Mubashir.
The other committee members are: Liaquat University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Jamshoro, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Noshad A Shaikh, Liaquat College of Medicine and Dentistry, Karachi, Principal Prof Dr Navid Rashid Qureshi, Lahore Medical and Dental College Chief Executive Prof Dr Javed Asghar, Peshawar Medical College Principal Prof Dr Najibul Haque, Bolan Medical College, Quetta, Principal Prof Dr Shanaz Naseer Baloch, Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore, Principal Prof Dr Javed Akram and PMDC Registrar Dr Ahmad Nadeem Akbar.
Constituted by PMDC, the committee was mandated to revise certain paras of conditions for admission to MBBS/BDS courses and conditions for house job regulations/entry test.
It was for the sixth time that the authorities concerned have changed weightage formula for admissions to public sector medical colleges of the province.
Last year, all the public sector medical colleges of Punjab had admitted the students pursuing the weightage scheme according to which 40 per cent marks were given to FSc, 10 per cent to matric and 50 weightage to entrance test.
Interestingly, the new weightage formula recommended by the committee recently was quite different to that mentioned in the PMDC Regulations 2010 ‘conditions for admission to MBBS/BDS courses and conditions for house job regulations’.
According to the regulations, the admitting authority shall determine the order of merit while allocating the following weightage to the following marks: matric 10 per cent, intermediate/equivalent 40 per cent and entry test 50 per cent.
The change in weightage formula in Punjab is not a new initiative as it was the third pattern introduced since 1998, the year the entrance test was conducted for the first time for admissions to public sector medical colleges.
The Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, conducted first medical entrance test exams in Punjab and the admissions were made following the pattern according to which 50 per cent weightage was given to FSc and 50 per cent to the entrance test passing marks.
Later, the criteria was changed in 1999 according to which 60 per cent weightage was given to FSc marks and 40 per cent to entrance test marks. The same was followed for six years or so. The said formula was prepared and introduced by the Punjab government and the medical entrance test was conducted by University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore.
Then, on the intervention of the Lahore High Court, the Punjab government made admissions in accordance with the new criteria which had given 70 per cent weightage to FSc and 30 per cent to entrance test marks and the same was followed till 2007.
Meanwhile, the UHS took assignment of conducting entrance test exams in 2008 and continued the same pattern till 2010. Meanwhile PMDC Regulations 2010 approved new weightage formula. The UHS ignored the said regulations and announced to continue with admissions following the old pattern.
On this, the students challenged the UHS decision in the Lahore High Court which directed the varsity administration to follow the old formula in 2010 only and adopt the PMDC Regulations from next year.
PMDC President Prof Dr Sibtul Hasnain told Dawn that some senior experts of the council would first thoroughly examine the newly recommended weightage scheme. After analysing it from all perspectives, the same would be placed in the agenda meeting of the executive council for final approval.
“The next executive council meeting is likely to be held within a month and the decision will be taken in the larger interest of students,” Hasnain said.