Rs4.5m sought for admission in private medical college

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Mahmood Khan took notice of a video conversation that went viral on the social media between a student and an alleged head of a private medical college demanding Rs4.5 million ‘donation’ for admission in the college. In the phone conversation, a student called an alleged head of a private medical college and wanted to check with him if he can be given admission to the college.

The alleged head of the medical college told the student that he had already made it clear that he would need to pay him a donation of Rs4.5 million. “Look my son I have told you that you can’t match our merit. If you want to get admission, you need to give us a donation of Rs4.5 million and that’s what I explained to you before,” the student was reminded.

Also, he told the student that he should not appear in the interview in case he paid the donation even though the student didn’t match their merit.

When the student asked the head of the college if he can get some discount, the alleged head of the medical college stated: “I can’t give a discount of even one rupee as all the seats have almost been taken and 13-14 seats only remained to be filled. If you are interested then pay the donation and get admission.”

Interestingly, the video was widely shared by the doctors’ community but none of them was willing to be quoted by name, fearing that the party (owner of the college) is very powerful and can cause them damage.

The government, particularly the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), a regulatory body of the medical and dental education in the country, failed to take notice of the issue. Senior doctors in Peshawar claimed the video conversation was true and based on facts.

“Yes, it’s very true. I went myself for admission of my nephew. His FSc marks were 947 and entry test marks were 130 and the same person speaking in the video demanded Rs6.7 million for admission. Then my elder brother went there and the same person made a similar demand,” said a senior physician in Peshawar on condition of anonymity.

The chief minister took notice of the issue and directed the provincial health department to investigate it. “I am directed to refer to the subject noted above and to state that it has been pointed out to the competent authority that numerous complaints are being made by the students and their parents regarding excessive amount demanded by various private sector medical and dental colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the name of donation and lump sum payment of five years fee, etc which is a clear violation of the rules and regulations of the Pakistan Medical Commission, Khyber Medical University (KMU), Higher Education Regulatory Authority (HERA) of the KP government and judgements of the superior judiciary as well,” the health department explained in a notification issued on Friday.

The health department directed all the private sector medical and dental colleges functioning in KP to refrain from such illegal and ugly practices in the larger public interest otherwise penal regulatory actions by the federal and provincial governments. Neither the chief minister nor the health department mentioned whether they would investigate the issue.