Islamabad : The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) has denied ordering the merger of dental colleges with medical colleges and declared reports about it fake.
“In response to incorrect and false news being spread, it is clarified that we have neither directed dental colleges to merge with medical colleges nor [have ordered] shutdown [of] the dental colleges,” a spokesman for the regulator for medical and dental education declared in a statement.
The spokesman, however, said it had provided an additional option to dental colleges to use some of the common facilities with associated medical colleges to provide ‘financial relief’ to dental colleges.
“It is up to each dental college whether to operate with all independent facilities or share them with their associated medical colleges in order to reduce their operating costs,” it said.
The PMC spokesman said it, at no time, had made it mandatory for all dental colleges to merge with medical colleges.
“This is an option given to dental colleges to facilitate them and to be exercised by them at their option, hence providing flexibility in terms of both education management and financial management.”
The spokesman said the commission had, at no time, stated or mandated that the last date of admission for medical and dental colleges should be the same and that the amended Medical and Dental Undergraduate Education Regulation, 2021, (Amended) simply provides a final date for the closure of all admissions for all medical and dental colleges in the country.
He said the discretion and choice were left to the colleges to decide among themselves if they wanted to schedule their admission closure in the case of the medical programme earlier than that of the dental programme.
“This is a right given to all colleges under the PMC Act, 2020, and the commission cannot abridge or curtail such right.”
