KMC likely to lose 37 seats if staff not hired

PESHAWAR: Instead of increasing seats, Khyber Pakhtun-khwa’s first and biggest public sector medical college, Khyber Medical College (KMC), is likely to lose 37 merit seats this year if its Board of Governors (BoG) does not fill vacant positions of faculty members at the college immediately.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental College (PMDC) had sanctioned 250 seats in KMC, but in 2007-8, the government of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) raised it to 287 without getting any approval from PMDC.

Some other medical and dental colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in other provinces also had raised the number of seats in their respective institutions without the PMDC’s approval.

After receiving complaints, the PMDC in 2014 took notice of the issue and warned all public and private medical and dental colleges to admit students on sanctioned seats only.

Besides, the PMDC had
imposed Rs5,000 fine on every institution for each additional student admitted beyond sanctioned seats.

Like other institutions, the KMC surrendered 37 seats, which is a big loss to the students of this province that is already lagging behind in terms of medical education and health services.

The male students would be the ultimate losers as there is already a separate medical college for girls in the public sector, Khyber Girls Medical College (KGMC) in Peshawar.

The KGMC had previously 50 seats but have been increased to 100.

Established in 1954, the Khyber Medical College is considered the most developed institution in terms of resources, qualified faculty and infrastructure. Some of the faculty members opined that KMC had the capacity and infrastructure to accommodate 300 students if the BoG filled the vacant positions in the college.

“Around 20-plus faculty positions have been lying vacant for quite some time. This put at stake the matter of recognition of the college. Some of the positions had already been advertised and the BoG is in the process of hiring people for different specialties,” a faculty member told The News.

Pleading anonymity, he said if the BoG accelerated the selection process it would help the KMC retain these 37 seats and also enable the college administration to apply for 300 seats by writing to PMDC for inspection.

When contacted, KMC Principal Prof Dr Ijaz Hasan Khan Khattak said they decided to follow PMDC rules and would thus admit 250 students on sanctioned seats only.

He said the BoG of the college had advertised vacant positions and hoped all these vacancies would be filled soon.

“If these vacant positions are filled, we can apply for fresh inspection of PMDC to raise our seats to 300 for which all the infrastructure is available,” he added.

KMC admits the best position holder students every year through the Education Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA) test. It is known for imparting quality education.

The college has the biggest and highly qualified faculty, state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities, modern laboratories and the 1,200-bed purpose-built Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH).

The students with highest marks and top merit are given admission in KMC and the biggest numbers of students are accommodated there.

KMC is conducting postgraduate courses of M.Phil, PhD and FCPS courses in Basic Medical Sciences to meet the acute shortage of teachers in these subjects in the province.

The college is also conducting FCPS courses in all clinical specialties.