The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) and the Sindh Health Department are at odds after the commission recommended Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU), Karachi, not to intervene in private medical and dental college admissions.
The prolonged dispute has prevented Karachi students from enrolling in medical schools.
Jinnah Sindh Medical University has been forbidden from enrolling in private colleges by the Pakistan Medical Commission. The PMC has written a letter in this regard, stating that the university’s advertisement of admissions to private medical colleges is not only a breach of the Pakistani Constitution, but also of the law as put down definitively by the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court.
The JSMU’s public notice has caused grave and unnecessary confusion among students, and it must be withdrawn immediately, according to the letter, because neither the JSMU, the admission committee, nor the Sindh health department are legally mandated to handle admissions to private medical and dental colleges.
It states that under the PMC Act 2020, admissions to private medical colleges are to be handled directly by the colleges, based on criteria submitted in advance by each college, and that the JSMU, the admission committee, or the Sindh health department cannot amend the PMC Act 2020 through a notification.
“Any attempt by JSMU to take admissions at private medical or dentistry colleges will be tantamount to usurping a right of private medical and dental colleges, as well as a direct violation of the PMC Act, 2020.”
