By Our Staff Reporter
Hyderabad: A team of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) visited Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences (LUMHS), Jamshoro, to assess the eligibility of its medical college, named after Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson, Bilawal Bhutto.
Briefing the PMDC team comprising its Registrar Brig Hafeez Ahmed Siddiqui and three members, vice-chancellor of the university, Dr Noshad A. Shaikh, told them that the varsity planned the college, named after PPP chairperson as Bilawal Medical College, to overcome the shortage of male doctors.
After the PMDC’s approval, 100 students will be given admission in the first batch from various districts of Sindh. According to media report deputy registrar Dr Saroop Bhatia said that appointment of the faculty is underway and interviews are likely to be called next week. The varsity sources said that the council will conduct at least one more inspection visit after the faculty’s appointment.
The sources said that the varsity intends to give admissions to those candidates who passed the National Testing Service (NTS) test for admission for LUMHS in November, 2015, but were unable to gain admission due to limited number of the seats.
Some 5,718 candidates appeared in the entry test conducted on Nov 22, 2015, for 350 seats of Bachelor’s of Medicine (MBBS) and 100 of Bachelor’s of Dental Surgery (BDS) in LUMHS.
The admission quota is limited to 13 districts of Sindh, including Hyderabad, Sanghar, Shaheed Benazirabad, Thatta, Sujawal, Badin, Mirpurkhas, Tharparkar, Umerkot, Jamshoro, Matiari, Tando Allahyar and Tando Muhammad Khan.
The Bilawal Medical College will offer admission for only MBBS programme and that, too, on self-finance basis. The admission fee is likely to be between Rs500,000 to Rs600,000 per year, according to the sources.
The LUMHS announced the plan of opening the college, construction of whose building in the premises of the university has recently been completed, in October, 2014.
The announcement followed a letter of PMDC dated Sept 18, 2014, addressed to the provincial and federal health secretaries, suggesting fixing 50 per cent quota for both genders in the admissions.
The PMDC based its recommendation on the comparatively higher number of female doctors who leave the profession after completing their education. However, the varsities did not comply with the directives due to an earlier order of the Supreme Court which called for ensuring only merit-based admissions.