ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) on Thursday expressed displeasure over the non-implementation of the federal Cabinet's decision to increase reserved seats for students of the tribal districts in the country's medical colleges.

The committee met with MNA Sajid Khan in the chair to discuss the issue of doubling reserved seats for students of the erstwhile Fata in the country's medical and dental colleges.

Members of the committee expressed serious concerns over the non-cooperation by the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) to implement the decision of Cabinet made in its meeting held on March 02, 2017, and had approved doubling of the quota for the students belonging to the tribal districts for 10 years.

The members were of the opinion that it was decided during merger that quota of Fata students in education and health institutions would be doubled and retained for 10 years after merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but unfortunately, the decision of Cabinet is still pending and not implemented in letter and spirit.

After lengthy discussion, the committee decided unanimously that another meeting would be convened on January 19 at the PMC, Islamabad, by inviting the secretaries of health department of provincial governments, vice-chancellors of all the admitting health universities, secretary Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, secretary Ministry of SAFRON and President PMC and other relevant stakeholders to sit together and resolve the issue amicably and submit report back to the committee accordingly.

In his remarks, the committee chairman regretted that almost three years have passed since the Cabinet gave approval for increasing the seats for students of the former Fata, but the issue has not been resolved despite many sessions held on the subject.

In its previous meeting held on January 7, 2021, the committee had given a deadline of January 11, 2021 to the PMC to issue notification to double the seats of the students belonging to former Fata, failing which the panel had warned that it would move a privilege motion against the PMC's president.

The PMC representative informed the committee that it has neither any role to play in the policy of increasing the quota for the students of former Fata nor its consent is required for it.

The committee was further informed that the public medical colleges are owned by the provincial governments and any decision in this regard has to be taken in consultations with the provincial governments.

The meeting was attended by Saleh Mohammad, Shahid Ahmad, Gul Dad Khan, Gul Zafar Khan, Abdul Shakoor Shad, Aliya Hamza Malik, Shaheen Naz Saifullah, Nawabzada Shah Zain Bughti, Mohammad Afzal Khokhar, Aysha Rajab Ali, Mohammad Jamalud Din, and Minister for SAFRON Sahibzada Mohammad Mahboob Sultan, besides senior officers of the ministry and relevant departments.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021