ISLAMABAD: Either legalise corruption or allow the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) to take action against the private medical colleges which have been taking bribes for admissions, PMDC President Dr Shabir Lehri told members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) on Wednesday.

The meeting of the committee, which was chaired by MNA Khalid Hussein Magsi, was called to discuss the issue of admissions into private medical colleges due to the recent controversy between the council and private colleges.

On Oct 27 this year, the council published a notification in the Gazette of Pakistan that all public sector universities will conduct the admission process for private medical colleges, including the collection of fee, in order to avoid complaints regarding bribery and asking students for donations.

Private medical colleges were not in favour of the policy and a number of writs were filed in courts across the country.

Colleges have now completed the admissions process on their own but the council maintains it will not register the students.

During the meeting on Tuesday, Dr Lehri said private medical colleges have earned a bad name for themselves and that 5pc of them have become a mafia of sorts.

`Owners of these colleges say they can make all decisions about the colleges, since they own them. Students currently have to pay over Rs10 million in order to become a doctor,` he said.

`Admissions to public sector colleges are made on merit and no one has ever lodged a complaint about them. However, there is no mechanism for admissions into private medical colleges. We have been trying to ensure that students only have to pay Rs640,000 per year in fees,` he said.

The council has refused to register students of the colleges which are not implementing the council`s mechanism, Dr Lehri added.

Members of the committee agreed that the PMDC should use its powers and impose heavy fines on private colleges which are not following therules. PML-NSenatorMohammad Afzal Khan Dhandla talked about the problems students face during admissions and said the council should introduce its own entry test so that students do not have to suffer each year due to the complicated system for entry tests.

Increased fine for manufacturers, sellers of spurious drugs The committee also decided to accept the proposal put forward by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan for increasing the fine for the manufacturing of spurious drugs.

It was decided that a fine of between Rs10 million and Rs100 million will be imposed on manufacturers, between Rs1million and Rs10 million on distributors and Rs100,000 and Rs1 million on retailers for selling spurious drugs. The fines will be imposed after the prime minister gives his approval.