PESHAWAR   -  The Higher Education Regulatory Authority (HERA) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has imposed a ban on new ad­missions to the MBBS programme at Jinnah Medi­cal College (JMC) due to its failure to meet regulato­ry standards.

The college has violated multiple provisions of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Registration & Functioning of Private Educational Institutions Ordinance 2001 and HERA Regulations 2006. A performance evaluation conducted by experts from Khyber Medical Universi­ty and Hayatabad Medical Complex revealed that the college does not meet the minimum standards re­quired to operate an MBBS programme.

This was reported to the college in June 2023, but no corrective action has been taken, according to an office order issued by the Chairman of HERA. In light of these violations, and in accordance with Section 23 of the HERA Ordinance, the prescribed penalty is the revo­cation of registration. However, to safeguard the inter­ests of the students, HERA has imposed a ban on fur­ther admissions to the MBBS programme until these issues are resolved. The office order further states that JMC management failed to clear outstanding salaries for senior teaching staff, totaling Rs. 19,584,167, for the period from December 2019 to October 2023, de­spite a written commitment made in December 2023. Additionally, JMC management has not paid the annu­al renewal dues for HERA registration since 2020, in violation of Section 8 of the Ordinance.