Islamabad: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has decided to restore the National Licensing Examination (NLE) for all MBBS and BDS graduates of local public and private medical and dental colleges, making it a mandatory requirement to obtain a license for clinical practice in Pakistan.
PMDC President Prof. Dr. Rizwan Taj told the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services that the previous decision to abolish the NLE was “unfortunate” and not aligned with international regulatory standards.
He informed the committee that the PMDC Council will formally approve the reintroduction of the exam on July 27, 2025, after which no graduate will be permitted to practice medicine or dentistry in the country without passing the NLE.
“No graduate will be allowed to practice without passing the NLE once it is reintroduced,” Prof. Taj asserted during the committee’s session on Monday.
The meeting also addressed the upcoming Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) 2025, which will be conducted simultaneously across Pakistan on October 5, with admissions to all medical and dental colleges to be completed by the end of February 2026.
Senator Dr. Humayun Mohmand welcomed the NLE’s restoration, suggesting that instead of halting the establishment of new medical colleges through a moratorium, the focus should be on filtering the quality of graduates via the NLE.
He said the lack of medical seats in Pakistan was forcing families to send students abroad, where many were enrolled in low-standard institutions charging between Rs4.5 million to Rs7.5 million per year.
“This is leading to a brain drain of finances and a return of ill-trained professionals,” he warned.
Backing the concern, Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal revealed that Pakistan was losing nearly $400 million annually in foreign exchange as students pursue substandard medical degrees overseas.
“And ironically, 99.99 percent of these foreign-trained graduates fail our licensing exams,” he noted.
Senator Mohmand also raised the issue of unpaid house jobs, calling it the “worst form of exploitation” and demanded that house officers be paid at least Rs150,000 per month.
Minister Kamal acknowledged the problem and expressed support for fair compensation but added, “We must also assess what our financial resources can allow. Many of these unpaid doctors sign undertakings stating they don’t want salaries.”
Senator Atta-ur-Rehman of JUI-F made serious claims regarding the unchecked growth of medical colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, alleging that a ghost medical college exists in the province.
He noted that seven private colleges were operating within a single block in Hayatabad, Peshawar, and called on PMDC to audit the quality and infrastructure of all existing institutions.
The committee also debated a proposed amendment to include parliamentarians in the PMDC Council. Senator Mohmand backed the move, arguing that parliamentary oversight could bring transparency in areas like admissions and tuition fees.
However, Prof. Rizwan Taj and Minister Kamal both opposed the idea, citing World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) standards, which they said prohibit political representation in regulatory councils to preserve impartiality and global accreditation.
“There is already excessive political interference in medical education. We don’t need more,” Minister Kamal remarked, adding that even he was not part of the PMDC Council.
Senators Irfan Siddiqui and committee chairman Amir Waliuddin challenged this stance, pointing out that parliamentarians had served on the PMDC Council in the past. They demanded that PMDC provide concrete evidence or legal documentation from WFME prohibiting such inclusion. The matter was eventually deferred for further discussion in the next meeting.
Prof. Rizwan Taj also informed the committee that PMDC had upgraded medical college registration standards in February 2025, bringing them in line with European benchmarks, and a comprehensive review of existing colleges was underway.
Health Minister Kamal expressed concern over foreign institutions operating in “single-room setups” abroad, saying such degrees had to be scrutinized carefully before registration.
The meeting also featured a briefing from Health Services Academy Vice Chancellor Prof. Shahzad Ali Khan, who said his university is one of the few self-reliant government institutions and claimed that none of its graduates are unemployed.
The committee concluded with consensus on strengthening quality controls in medical education while seeking clarification from WFME on political representation within PMDC’s decision-making structure.
Ends