LAHORE: The Punjab government has announced a newly revised Central Induction Policy-2026 for the postgraduate training under the FCPS and MD/ MS programmes, introducing many controversial features/changes, severely damaging prospects of the graduates of the public sector medical institutions.

In the new policy, the authorities have reduced up to 50pc marks for the induction of government medical institutes` graduates in training programmes in January 2026 and completely abolished the same for the next process (induction) to be made in July 2026.

In the earlier policy for the residency programmes, 10 marks were awarded tothem for serving in primary & secondary healthcare facilities and Punjab Employees Social Security Institute (PESSI)while up to 15 for work at jail hospitals.

The primary and secondary health facilities included basic health units (BHUs), rural health centres (RHCs), tehsil headquarter hospitals (THQs) and district headquarters hospitals (DHQ s).

The critics allege that the strong lobbies in the power corridors have innuenced the processes to help the foreign and private medical graduates to secure maximum number of residency seats, inflicting major dent to those who graduated from the government sector institutes with distinctive marks and served at the abovementioned health facilities. They fear that under the new policy, the private and foreign graduates may occupy 70/80 percent of the residency slots if the controversial policy is not reviewed forthwith.

The revised CIP-2026 has triggered a strong backlash across the government medical community, with government medical graduates finding their future dark as they dubbed the policy absolutely as `a death toll` for the high-meritgraduates/aspirants of the public sector institutions.

A notification of new CIP-2026 was issued by the Specialised Healthcare & Medical Education Department here the other day pursuant to the decision made in the Postgraduate Admission Committee (PGAC) meeting held on Nov 13, 2025.

About the eligibility/pre-qualifications, the policy says that a total five points shall be awarded for claiming experience at primary, secondary and tertiary care hospitals. Of them, 1.25 points shall be given against experience at the primary care level (only BHUs, RHCs, for each three months without any gap/interruption in the same institutes).

Similarly, 0.75 points for reach three months without any gap shall be allocated for serving at secondary healthcare facilities including the THQ, DHQ (non-teaching hospitals), major hospitals of PESSI with 100 beds and above strength only, etc, and 0.5 points against experience at tertiary healthcare level, including Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute and Multan Institute of Kidney Diseases.

The other marks/points shall be given for working in jail hospitals (further clas-sifying them shift-wise morning, evening and night). In the earlier policy, these points were reportedly being marked up to 15, subject to the period of working at the jail hospitals (above one year).

The new policy clearly defined that the five points allocated for working in primary, secondary, tertiary care, jail and PESSI health facilities shall not be awarded in the postgraduate induction to be made in July 2026.

`The marks for working experience of primary, secondary, tertiary care health facilities and PESSI and jail hospitals as per clause B (iii) (a-d) as mentioned above shall be discontinued for July 2026 induction and onwards,` reads the notification.

An official, privy to the information, declares the CIP-26 a controversial shift, saying it has not only reduced the experience marks up to 50 percent for January induction but also withdrawn the same for the next induction to be made in July 2026 and onward.

He alleges that the new policy has completely abolished the points the government graduates used to claim in previous settings under the head of the `parent institute marks`, the house job marks (in parent institute) and the Matric & FSc marks. Similarly, the marks which were earlier allocated for doing work in peripheries have also been abolished, he said. For years, these marks had served as the only recognition for the doctors who worked in some of the most under-resourced public health facilities in Punjab.

The official says that the decision to withdraw these points is nothing but a targeted strike against government graduates who have already borne the brunt of low pay, overwhelming workload, and systemic instability.

Adding to the outcry is the broader restructuring of merit criteria, which has effectively eliminated institutional preference for graduates seeking training intheir parent institutions, he says.

A former leader of the Young Doctors Association Punjab and representative of South Punjab Medical Forum, Dr Mian Adnan, urges the government to review this unjust and unfair policy which is tantamount to a total discouragement for indigenous and hard working students who get through admission to public sector medical colleges after one of the toughest competitive examination system.

`For thousands of young doctors who completed house jobs and early careers in government hospitals, the new policy drastically reduces their chances of securing residency seats,` he says.

Dr Adnan adds that the move tilts the playing field sharply in favour of private-sector applicants, who neither serve in remote government facilities nor face the harsh working conditions that public-sector physi-cians routinely endure.

Another senior medic says the doctors who spent years in the BHUs and RHCs who kept the primary healthcare network running will now get no recognition at all.

`It is demoralising, unfair, and completely disconnected from ground realities,` he laments, adding that the decision has sparked frustration among the young graduates, many of whom now fear that their long-term career paths have become uncertain.

On the other hand, the social media platforms are flooded with testimonies from doctors describing the policy as `devastating, anti-graduate`, and a deliberate attempt to dismantle merit for government doctors.

University of Health Sciences (UHS) Vice Chancellor Prof Ahsan Waheed Rathore rejects the allegations of discrimination, saying that both the government and privatemedical graduates were provided with an equal opportunity in the revised policy. He was also part of the Postgraduate Admission Committee like other VCs and principals of state-run medical institutions. The committee had reviewed the policy and furnished the recommendations.

To a question regarding abolishing of working experience at primary, secondary and other hospitals, he says the private medical graduates are also serving there and they reserve the right to be considered for induction in postgraduate residency programmes.

About FC, Matric exams marks, he termed them irrelevant, saying they (marks) had nothing to do with the induction in residency programme after the aspirants obtained MBBS degrees. The Punjab health minister and the secretary didn`t reply to the text messages and calls made to them by this reporter to seek their version.