The Punjab government has reduced the number of merit seats in public medical colleges in the province by 10 in order to accommodate more students from Azad Jammu and Kashmir in admissions for 2013-14, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Last year, a total of 26 seats were reserved for students from AJK at seven medical colleges in the Punjab three at Nishtar Medical College (NMC) in Multan, 10 at Fatima Jinnah Medical College (FJMC), two at Services Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS), three at Punjab Medical College (PMC) Faisalabad, three at Rawalpindi Medical College (RMC), three at Quaid-i-Azam Medical College (QMC) Bahawalpur and two at Shaikh Zayed Medical College (SZMC) Rahim Yar Khan. Another 10 seats at the FJMC were reserved for AJK students as part of their share under the federal government.
They will get another 10 seats this year, including, for the first time, reserved seats at the two top colleges in the Punjab, King Edward Medical University (KEMU) and Allama Iqbal Medical College (AIMC). According to official documents available with The Express Tribune, there are 3,089 open merit seats in 17 public medical colleges in the province.
A senior Health Department official said that the AJK government asked the Punjab government for another 10 seats every year, and the Punjab government usually accepted, but not by reducing the number of merit seats.
“Previously, the additional seats were given to AJK students simply by increasing the total number of seats. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council then usually objects that the Punjab government cannot do so without its approval. This year it seems they have adjusted the demand against merit seats to avoid any issues with the PMDC,” he said.
According to the official order from the chief minister, the additional 10 seats for AJK students will mean one less merit seat at KEMU, one at AIMC, one at NMC Multan, three at FJMC, one at PMC Faisalabad, two at RMC and one at QMC Bahawalpur. This will leave AIMC with a total of 301 seats, KEMU with 302, NMC with 280, FJMC with 253, PMC with 287, RMC with 297 and QMC with 273 merit seats.
The reduction in merit seats is likely to anger students from the Punjab who just miss out on admission to a medical college based on their exam scores.
Last year, the Admissions Board had recommended that the number of seats reserved for AJK students be reduced because colleges had been built there.
Health Secretary Hassan Iqbal said, “We are seeing this issue in a broader policy perspective and as a matter of fact the number of reserved seats for AJK students remains the same as it was the year before.
We haven’t increased the seats for them so it’s not an issue as there is no policy change”.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2013.