No foreign nationality, no seat. This appears to be the norm in medical colleges in Punjab, which have no quota for overseas Pakistanis.
According to the record obtained by The Express Tribune, public sector medical colleges have just a total of 161 seats for foreign students in Punjab, out of which 144 are for MBBS and 17 seats for BDS. But surprisingly, none of them is for overseas Pakistanis. In contrast, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) do have special seats for overseas Pakistanis in public medical colleges.
“There are two categories of seats for foreign students in public medical colleges of Punjab. Some students are admitted by the Economic Affairs Division under the Pakistan Technical Assistance (PTA) programme. Under this scheme, 72 students in different medical colleges are admitted.
Their fee is the same as that of the local Pakistani students, which is (Rs18,000) per annum,” said senior official at Health Department. He further explained that more foreign students are admitted under the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) Foreign Self-finance Scheme. There are 72 seats reserved for this category too. However, the fee for this programme ranges between $5,000 to $10,000 (Rs492,125 to Rs984,252) depending on the college.
Officials of the departments concerned talked to The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.
“Those 72 seats which are under the PTA program are filled every year, even though the eligibility criterion for this category remains high. These seats are usually filled by students of friendly foreign countries or of Pakistani citizens with dual nationalities,” said another official.
A big part of the problem is that not many apply in the 72 seats for the self-finance scheme. Thus many seats go waste. As the official explained, the criterion is that the applicant should be a foreign or dual national. Those who miss out, then, are overseas Pakistanis residing in countries in which they may get work permits, but they do not have foreign or dual nationalities.
“The seats which are under HEC Foreign Self-finance Scheme are often left vacant, even though the required criteria for this category are low,” he explained. The reason he stated was that not many foreigners apply. Thus, many seats are left vacant in this category every year because they are just for the foreigners. Pakistani students born in countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman or UAE, where there is no rule of getting nationality, cannot get admission on these seats despite having the required merit.
“This is a kind of discrimination that those Pakistanis who are born in countries like USA, UK, Australia, Germany, Ireland and others that grant nationality are treated as foreigners and can avail this chance, while some 3.7 million overseas Pakistanis living in the Gulf and other countries are not facilitated because they are not considered foreigners, even though they live abroad.”
As per the data of the Election Commission of Pakistan, there are 1.6 million registered overseas Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia, 1.2 million in UAE, 0.2 million in Oman and 0.15 million in Kuwait.
Private medical colleges stand to benefit from this unfortunate rule. “Private medical colleges exploit this situation. Their annual fee for a year is around $18,000 (Rs1,778,656); many overseas Pakistanis end up going to them for admissions,” said an HEC official suggesting that the government should at least make available half of the 72 seats under the HEC scheme for overseas Pakistanis. “These are seats that remain vacant. The government could also earn revenue by filling these seats. Overseas Pakistanis send the country revenue. They deserve to be facilitated in the largest province of the country.”
Muhammad Atif is the spokesperson for the University of Health Sciences. The University handles admissions of students in medical colleges in Punjab. Atif placed the responsibility for policy-making on the government and said that it is the government that formulates policies on such issues and the universities just follow the rules.
Secretary Health Dr Ijaz Munir, who took charge last month, said he wasn’t aware of the issue of overseas Pakistanis not having special seats in medical colleges of Punjab. He said he would look into the matter and see what could be done to resolve it.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2014.