PESHAWAR: The government is probing the alleged out-of-merit admissions in private medical colleges to take measures for ensuring transparency in enrolment of more than 1,000 students in the province.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa admits 1,375 students in first year MBBS in private sector every year.

Muhammad Medical College, one of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 17 private colleges including 12 medical and seven dental, in the province is facing inquiry for the alleged audio tape in which a student is asked by its official to pay Rs4.5 million as donation and get admission without being interviewed.

Students said that they had sent at least 10 videos and audios to the inquiry committee with evidence in support of their allegations that private colleges took money from people in the shape of donations to admit them.

The inquiry committee has asked the principals of medical and dental colleges to furnish lists of students, who applied for admission this year, names of selected ones, their fee structure and merit lists.

Findings will be submitted to governor by Monday

Khyber Medical University along with health department and Higher Education Regulatory Authority (Hera) will present their findings regarding private medical schools in Peshawar, Abbottabad and Swat to the governor by Monday.

“The video and audio tapes are being investigated,” sources said. They said that private colleges in the provinces were being controlled by Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC). During the last two years, the private medical colleges in the province were monitored by Khyber Medical University.

Sources said that PMC had excluded from admissions in private colleges, all the five admitting medical universities in the country, due to which 87 medical and dental schools in the country were unlikely to be monitored properly.

Two years ago, the public sector universities prepared merit-lists for private colleges in the respective province but after doing away with PMDC, PMC is now handling the colleges. PMC prepares a central merit list of countrywide admissions in medical colleges.

“We have gathered proofs where students were asked to pay donations in a private medical to be able to get admission out of merit. PMC has authorised private colleges to fill 20 per cent of the sanctioned admission quota on their own. It provides cushion for the owners to manipulate admissions,” said sources.

Officials said that private colleges could still be proceeded against if they were found involved in unlawful admissions. Higher Education Regulatory Authority regulates educational institutions in the private sector. It has the legal mandate to award penalties for flawed admissions under the law.

Sources said that KMU also asked PMC for the merit lists of the private medical colleges that would be compared with the list of admitted students. It has sought all account details and transactions from the colleges by Monday.

The students said that a full-fledged inquiry would expose those, who fleeced the people, who were ready to pay bribe to become doctors.

However, sources said that in the present legal situation, medical colleges were on safe sides. They said that the inquiry was unlikely to make any impact on the private varsities that were now under director control of PMC.

“There are also private colleges in the province that adhere to merit in taking students and have set high standards,” said officials.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2021