PESHAWAR: Timergara Medical College (TMC) in Lower Dir, which was established 10 years ago, is likely to induct first batch of 50 students this year.

TMC principal Prof Abrar Lakhkar Khan told Dawn that management was set to start classes in the long-delayed college from that academic year after completion of the process of appointing faculty members as per criteria set forth by Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the regulator of medical education in the country.

`We have already completed interviews of candidates and health depart-ment will be issuing notification regarding their appointments. Faculty members will be offered incentives to take up jobs in the new college for which we have sent requests to government,` he said.

He said that government had already offered incentives to attract faculty to Gajju Khan Medical College Swabi and Bannu Medical College Bannu. He said that it would be difficult to convince teachers working in other areas since long to join TMC without offering additional perks and privileges.

Prof Abrar, who was appointed principal of TMC in November, said that he had recently given a presentation to Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi during his visit to Dir regarding progress on the college and obstacles to making it functional. He added that the chief minister directed him strictly to work on war-footing basis to launch admission in the current year.

`We are well on target and hope that 50 students will be inducted this year.

We will also write to Khyber MedicalUniversity (KMU), the admitting university for admissions to public and private medical and dental colleges in the province, after fulfilment of formalities,` he said.

The district headquarters hospital in Timergara has already been declared as teaching hospital for TMC. The hospital has already required facilities. `After the appointments of about 50 faculty members including basic sciences and other clinical specialists PMDC and KMU will accept our request for starting classes in the college,` said Prof Abrar.

He said that the process was being completed on urgent basis because PMDC allowed migration of faculty members from one to another college only in October, November and December. `We want to do it in current month,` he said. He added that the faculty members, who appeared in the interviews, presently worked in other colleges and they would need permission of PMDC for migration.

`As per plan, we will give admission to students, who stay at the end of themerit list for nine public sector medical colleges in the province,` he said.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 10 medical colleges and five dental colleges in public sector, having 1,021 open merit seats which included 825 in medical colleges.

TMC will be the lith medical college in KP. The number of seats in 16 private medical and dental colleges is 1,425 but most of the students cannot afford the high fee at private colleges that are about Rs2.5 million per year. Most of the students opt for public sector medical colleges where fee is affordable.

KMU has started admission process after conducting medical and dental college admission test in the province. If TMC completes the process of hiring faculty as per the laid down criteria, it will get the status of a new medical college.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has already been planning to establish more colleges in the province.

TMC is one of such initiatives on which an amount of Rs2.40 billion has been spent. Its building has been completed two years ago.