Senate Body Gives One-week To PMC To Implement Balochistan, Ex-FATA Students Quota

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jan, 2021 ) :The Senate Functional Committee on Problems of Less Developed Areas Friday gave the Pakistan Medical Council (PMC) one week time to issue notification for allocating 265 reserved seats to students of Balochistan and ex-FATA in the medical colleges and universities of the country.

Senator Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar, who chaired the committee meeting, passed the direction while taking exception over non-implementation on reserved quota of the ex-FATA and Balochistan students in medical colleges and universities.

He said the PMC should arrange seats for students of Balochistan and FATA within a week as the Higher education Commission (HEC) was ready to provide scholarships.

On the occasion, the committee members expressed their concern over absence of the PMC Chairman in the meeting.

Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Vocational Training Wajiha Ikram said it was duty of the parliamentarians to ensure provision of basic facilities to students hailing from less developed areas of Balochistan and merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

She said the efforts were required to provide level-playing field to the youth of those areas as they were already deprived of basic facilities.

The HEC officials apprised the committee members about the status of reserved seats for the students of Balochistan and erstwhile FATA in public and private sector medical universities and colleges.

The panel was informed that 29 seats were allocated to the ex-FATA and Balochistan students for medical colleges and universities in 2016-17, whereas 165 seats allotted in 2017-18 and 265 in 2018-19.

The meeting was attended by Senator Sardar Mohammad Shafiq Tareen, Maulvi Faiz Mohammad and Nusrat Shaheen besides Secretary for Federal Education, HEC Executive Director, Member PMC and other senior officials.