ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has barred private medical colleges from receiving fees following a six-month-long controversy surrounding exorbitant fees charged by medical and dental colleges.

The order came a day after the intervention of a parliamentary committee on health that asked the regulatory body to cancel the registration of colleges that had not complied with its directives regarding the fee structure and also offered to help the PMDC over this issue. The decision about fees concerns the enrolled students as well as those who will join this year. It may be noted the admission process for this year has started.

“Pursuant to the directions passed by the sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on NHS meeting, all private medical and dental institutions are hereby directed not to collect fees for session 2024-25 from the students till final outcome of the committee constituted on the medical education by the prime minister of Pakistan and chaired by the deputy prime minister of Pakistan to review and revisit tuition fee of private medical and dental institutions of Pakistan,” the PMDC in a letter said.

“All colleges are required to comply with this directive and take necessary steps accordingly. This notice is issued for immediate compliance by all private medical and dental institutions,” the letter signed by the PMDC registrar stated.

Order to remain in field till decision of committee formed to revisit fee structure

NA panel meeting

Separately, the National Assembly Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) convened at the PMDC on Thursday to discuss issues related to the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) and the medical fraternity. The panel chaired by Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani discussed concerns about the MDCAT reforms along with future recommendations to ensure fair exams. The meeting also discussed out-of-syllabus questions in the recent test and asked the PMDC to ensure such mistakes were not repeated.

In terms of future reforms based on the committee’s previous recommendations, the PMDC agreed to form a high-powered subcommittee tasked with revising the MDCAT syllabus, developing a common question bank, and ensuring that candidates appear for the exam only in their domicile region.

The PMDC shall also review the current practice of conducting the MDCAT before the announcement of the intermediate results. The committee resolved to ensure that the future MDCAT exams were transparent, fair, and equitable for all students across the country.

The implementation of a single national curriculum was proposed by the NA panel to avoid regional disparities in the education system.

PMDC President Dr Rizwan Taj apprised the panel that MDCAT concluded after a retake by the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) on December 30, 2024 across Azad Jammu Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, Dubai and Riyadh.

Out of 12,717 registered candidates, 12,582 appeared in the retake exam, 11,166 candidates (89.6pc) qualified for MBBS while 11,708 (93.97pc) were eligible for the BDS. Notably, one candidate achieved the highest score of 199 out of 200, and only 329 candidates attained more than 191 marks. The assessment reliability was measured by Cronbach’s Alpha.

Prior to this test, the IBA Sukkur conducted a retake of MDCAT on December 8. As many as 32,208 candidates (83.26pc) appeared out of the total 38,684 who registered for the exam.

Prof Taj further said that all relevant universities had been directed to expedite and complete the admission process to ensure students could begin their education without further delay.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Zahra Wadood Fatemi, Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro, Dr Shaista Khan, Dr Darshan, Sabheen Ghoury, Dr Nikhat Shakeel Khan, Farah Naz Akbar, Gul Asghar Khan, Dr Azimuddin Zahid Lakhwi, Nisar Ahmed, Shabbir Ali Qureshi, Shahram Khan (virtual), and Shaista Pervaiz. The meeting also included Dr Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharath, the PM’s coordinator on health.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2025