PESHAWAR: Pakistan Medical Commission has increased 104 seats in the medical and dental colleges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa besides giving final approval to double the number of reserved seats for students belonging to former Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

“The commission has approved 104 new seats for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in addition to 136 seats for students of former Fata. The number of seats in 12 medical colleges has now reached 1,486 from 1,382,” Khyber Medical University Vice-chancellor Prof Ziaul Haq told Dawn.

Of the existing 1,382 seats in 14 colleges, including 10 medical and four dental colleges, 922 are specified for open merit, 136 for former Fata, 130 for general self-finance, 43 for foreign self-finance, 29 for tribal areas of Balochistan, 34 for Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 12 for Afghan nationals, six for physically challenged students, four for India-held Kashmir and others for students from backward districts such as Chitral, Buner, Tank, Dir, Shangla etc.

Prof Zia said that of the 104 newly sanctioned seats, two would go to the survivors of the attack on Army Public School while the remaining 102 seats would be distributed in accordance with the formula that would also enhance merit-based seats.

Number of reserved seats for former Fata students doubled

“A meeting will be held on Monday (today) to make decision about the additional seats approved for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The provincial government has made efforts to enhance seats in medical and dental colleges and PMC has accepted the request,” he said. He added that health department was updating infrastructure of medical colleges to be able to absorb the additional students.

Prof Zia said that the meeting would also make decision about the number of new seats to be allotted to the medical colleges. PMC has also increased seats for tribal students from 136 to 272 in line with the federal cabinet’s decision in 2017.

The commission had doubled seats in medical colleges for tribal students last year but informed the government that it would be one-time increase. However, on the persuasion of health department, the lawmakers from tribal districts struggled to double the seats and PMC issued a notification in this regard on January 28.

A letter written by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government regarding enhancement of the existing medical and dental seats to accommodate students from former Fata was considered and PMC agreed to increase the seats provisionally on basis of previous inspections results of 2019, said the notification.

It said that a total of 240 seats were enhanced against the requested 242 for the province. Of these, 136 additional seats will go to tribal students, two to APS attack survivors and the rest will go to merit and other quota-based admissions.

The seats have been increased in Khyber Medical College Peshawar, Ayub Dental College Abbottabad, Bacha Khan Medical College and Bacha Khan Dental College Mardan, Gajju Khan Medical College Swabi, Nowshera Medical College Nowshera and Khyber Girls Medical College Peshawar. An inspection would be carried out by PMC after six months to see if the infrastructure has been updated for more students.

The request of provincial government for provision of 50 seats in Saidu College of Dentistry was turned down as it wasn’t registered with PMC.

It has suggested that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should reassess the seats, infrastructure and facilities in each of the colleges in the coming months to consider a comprehensive plan of increase in seats across the province subject to necessary investment in improvement of infrastructure and subject to comprehensive inspections by PMC.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2021