ICT medical students complain against quota system

ISLAMABAD: The quota system has deprived hundreds of Islamabad-based students of their right to get admission in the Federal Medical and Dental College, as only 10 seats have been set aside for the students of Islamabad.

The Federal Medical and Dental College is the only public-owned medical college in the federal capital. Contrary to this, no medical college in other provinces has a separate quota for the ICT students.

Talking to The News, Ali Nawaz Awan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Capital Development Authority (CDA), said it was an injustice to the residents of Islamabad that only one percent job quota was fixed for the resident of Islamabad.

Awan said he had requested the government to enhance the quota to 20 percent in all jobs for the residents of ICT. “Bureaucracy is a big hurdle on this issue. I had raised the issue of insufficient quota for the residents of Islamabad in the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Cabinet Division. We are working on it and recently we have succeeded to get 20 percent quota as 1,250 ICT domicile holders have been given jobs in the Islamabad police,” Awan said.

The ICT has 2.2 million population and on this basis the residents of Islamabad get very few jobs because the quota system is based on population. Owing to a large population, the other provinces and regions get more jobs and seats in the medical colleges, he said. There are six medical and four dental colleges in the federal capital out of which only one is public-owned whereas the remaining nine are private.

The Federal Medical and Dental College (public) offers 100 seats out of which 10 are allocated for the ICT, 38 for Punjab, nine for Sindh Rural, 6 for Sindh Urban, 9 for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 5 for Balochistan and remaining seats are allocated for different regions and categories.

Interestingly, no medical college in other provinces has quota for the ICT students. The ICT students have demanded that the government enhance their quota at least in the Federal Medical and Dental College so that maximum number of students from Islamabad could be accommodated.

According to the students, candidates from other provinces had ample opportunities but the ICT domicile holders could not be accommodated in other provinces on the basis of quota. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) for the first time conducted a medical entry test a couple of days ago.

According to the official data, a total of 6,200 students appeared in the test to get admission in six medical and four dental colleges of Islamabad. Out of 6,200 students, 2070 were male and 4,122 female. There are only 825 seats available in 10 medical and dental colleges of Islamabad out of which the Federal Medical and Dental College offers only 100 seats.

According to the SZABMU management, earlier medical entry tests were conducted under the supervision of University of Health Sciences (UHS). However, for the first time the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has allowed the SZABMU to conduct entry test on its own.

The management claimed that the university administration had engaged best teachers available with the Federal Directorate of Education for preparation of entry test. At least, two to three specialised teachers from each subject were asked to submit their question bank. The university management analyzed the question bank and prepared the best possible test for the entry test.

The SZABMU administration further informed this reporter that initially the students’ marks of matriculation, FSc and entry tests were aggregated for admission. However, the matriculation marks were later excluded and now entry test and FSc marks each carry50 percent weightage for admission.