Public sector medical, dental colleges: transparency, merit in admissions to be ensured

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Senior Minister for Health, Shahram Khan Tarakai has directed all the concerned quarters to ensure transparency and meritocracy in the admission process of all public sector medical and dental colleges. He further said the transparency is the basis for quality medical education, which will not be compromise at any case.
He further directed to adopt such a procedure for admission that is more convenient for the students seeking admissions in these institutions. He was chairing a meeting of the Joint Admission Committee of the public sector medical and dental colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa here on Wednesday. The chair was briefed in detail about the admission policy adopted last year for admission to these institutions, proposed amendments in the policy and the draft prospectus for upcoming admissions. A number of matters related to the affiliation of newly established medical colleges with Khyber Medical University (KMU), their registration with Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), their operationalisation, seat distribution and the issue of registration of those students who have been admitted to medical colleges over and above the number of seats approved by PMDC for these colleges were discussed threadbare and a number of important decisions were taken to this effect.
The committee while elaborating the demerits of the decentralised admission policy adopted last year suggested the chair to restore the centralised admission policy practiced before. The provincial minister responded that the matter would be presented to the Chief Minister for final decision after thoroughly looking into all aspects and consultation with all stakeholders. The meeting decided to constitute a committee headed by vice chancellor, KMU to work out the issue of registration of newly established medical colleges with PMDC and equalise the number of seats of all public sector medical colleges with the approved number of PMDC and come up with it recommendations within ten days.
The chair directed the heads of the newly established Gaju Khan Medical College and Nowshehra Medical College to complete all the formalities for the affiliation of their respective colleges with KMU and their registration with PMDC within the shortest possible time period. The meeting also directed the principals of all the public sector medical colleges to furnish detailed list of students admitted in their respective colleges over and above the PMDC approved number of seats by Monday next so that their cases of registration with PMDC could be processed.
Besides secretary Health, Ghulam Qadir and Additional Secretary Health Khan Bakhsh Marwat, the meeting was attended by VC, KMU Professor Dr Hafeezullah, Dean Post Graduate Medical Institute Peshawar, Professor Raiz Anwa, Chief Executive, HMC Peshawar Professor Mumtaz Marwat, Chairman Joint Admission Committee, Professor Ejaz and all other members of the committee.