By Hina Kiyani
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on Monday clarified that no seat enhancement in medical and dental colleges was possible without its approval. According to a PMDC spokesperson, the Council had not agreed to 20 percent seat enhancement for MBBS and BDS programmes in public and private colleges.
Neither any application had been received from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for such seat enhancement nor the Council had given any such approval to anybody, he added.
The spokesperson said that provincial and regional authorities could enhance seats in medical and dental colleges with due approval from the PMDC which was the apex regulatory body of the country. He said that the Council had a set criteria, rules, regulations and standards in line with the global commitments for its recognition with the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME). He said that recognition of MBBS or BDS programmes and enhancement of seats was done in a due procedure, which “includes formal requests by provincial governments or individual colleges through the Ministry of Health”. He said that the PMDC was a national regulatory body and according to the law “no province can work or announce any enhancement independently”. Seats enhancement in public or private colleges was subject to the completion of the due process, he added.
