The decision of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council to lower the eligibility criteria for admission to medical and dental colleges has not gone down well with the experts, with a former health minister calling for the prime minister`s intervention for the decision`s reversal.Dr Zafar Mirza, who was the health minister during the PTI government, said that the recent decision to lower the eligibility to 45 per cent marks was `tragic`.

`The reported reason to allow this to happen is vacant seats in the medical and dental colleges due to which the medical colleges would earn less profit this year.

[The] PMDC is the guardian of the quality of medical education in the country. Its role is not to protect the financial interests of the medical colleges. I hope the members of the PMDC would do some serious introspection about the decision they have made and its consequences,` he said while talking to Dawn.`To say that it is being done in publicinterestisludicrous.Thatit is one-time decision is sheer nonsense. If next year again some seats remain vacant in some medical colleges, there will be again the same demand, politicians will be lobbied and same decisions will be made. Next year around, this year`s decision will be presented as a precedent,` he warned.

According to the former minister, the regulation of medical practice in Pakistan was `extremely weak and patients and their families suffer without fully knowing because of information discrepancy`.

He claimed that prescribers and diagnostic labs and even surgeons`take commissions for writing irrational prescriptions, doing unnecessary lab tests and undertaking unnecessary surgeries.There is no concept of any bioethics` Dr Mirza said as per his information the Punjab government didn`t agree to implement the decision. `I am sure there must be a high level political interference as a result of lobbying by the wealthy owners of the medical colleges to push through this PMDC decision, which would further lower the standard of medical education and practice in the country,` he claimed.

Dr Nadeem Jan, who was the caretaker minister in the lead up to the 2024 polls, said students whocannot even procure 50pc marks did not deserve to become doctors as they `will play with the health of the masses`. `Education is a social service, but unfortunately in Pakistan it has become a business.

PMDC should care about the patients rather than profit of the medical and dental colleges,` he suggested.

Dr Jan urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to intervene and take action against those who made the decision to lower the criteria. `PMDC has set the 65pc passing marks for medical students and now it has been allowing candidates having 45pc and 50pc marks to get admission in colleges.

I personally feel that they are look-ing for the quantity and not the quality,` he said.

It is worth mentioning that the PMDC permitted students securing as low as 50pc and 45pc marks to get admission to medical and dental colleges, respectively. The PMDC had claimed that the decision was taken in light of a significant number of vacant seats in medical and dental colleges. `This dispensation is granted solely for the 2024-25 academic session, in the interest of public good and to prevent the wastage of available seats. It is a one-time measure and shallnot be treated as a precedent for any future admission cycle, the document signed by the PMDC registrar had stated.