ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) has decided to knock the door of the Supreme Court to ensure the implementation on its recommendation regarding admission of boys and girls in medical colleges in equal proportions.
Earlier, the Lahore High Court has annulled the directions of the PM&DC to provinces to ensure  50:50 ratio of male and female in colleges, misconstruing it with setting only 50 per cent quota for female students and terming it gender discrimination when more than 70 per cent females are selected on medical seats.
The PM&DC respects the decision of the Lahore High Court but in wider interests of the nation it has decided to implement 50:50 ratio of male and female on open merit to address the shortage of doctors as many female doctors do not continue their profession, wasting public money spent on them by the government, maintained the President PM&DC Prof Dr Masood Hameed.
He stressed that there was no quota system being implemented in that regard. “As per PM&DC available data, approximately 60,000 practitioners are available against a demand of nearly 600,000 practitioners so there is a dearth of general practitioners in the country because as per PM&DC record more than 70 per cent doctors graduating every year are females who are reluctant to pursue their career due to several domestic pressures,” he explained.
Pakistan has 78,037 male doctor, 65,324 female doctors, 5,420 male dental practitioners, and 8,300 female dental practitioners.
He added that as PM&DC was the regulatory body of medical and dental education in Pakistan and it had to take decisions which were in accordance with the national interest.  Most of the primary and secondary healthcare units at private and public sectors are deprived of doctors.
Similar situation has been faced by Pakistan Army Medical Corps, where every year a number of female doctors are passed out but they do not opt for working in far-flung areas.
The president also requested to the government to look into the matter of 5 public and private female medical dental colleges including Fatima Jinnah Medical College for women, Lahore, Sir Syed College of Medical Sciences for Girls, Karachi, Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, Nawabshah, Khyber Girls Medical College, Peshawar, and Women Medical College, Abbottabad, to take necessary action to address this issue of grave matter.
The officials maintained that due to that practice, public money was wasted, the country faced dearth of health practitioners and medical college also faced shortage of teaching faculty.