The Punjab government has not raised the number of seats allocated for the children of overseas Pakistanis in public medical and dental colleges, despite a prior commitment from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
In April, the prime minister announced that 15 percent of medical college seats across the country would be set aside for the children of expatriates, allowing over 3,000 students to access medical education in Pakistan.
Currently, only 66 seats in a total of 20 government medical and dental colleges in Punjab are designated for overseas Pakistanis, which constitutes less than two percent of the overall seats. The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) informed the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis that it had acted on the prime minister’s directive and relayed this information to relevant parties.
However, the Punjab government’s admission policy for 2025–26 does not indicate the promised increase. The policy, announced in October, has also eliminated free education for overseas Pakistani students in government institutions.
According to revised regulations, students applying under the overseas quota are now required to pay an annual fee of US$10,000. Punjab’s public sector medical and dental colleges currently offer a total of 3,379 seats, which include 3,121 for MBBS and 258 for BDS programs.
A representative from the University of Health Sciences (UHS) stated that the prime minister’s directive pertains only to private medical colleges, where the PMDC has historically implemented a 15 percent quota. Private colleges charge substantial fees, approximately Rs2.5 million annually, which has deterred many overseas Pakistanis from submitting applications. Unfilled seats are frequently converted to open merit.
Overseas Pakistanis express that their primary concern lies within the public sector, where they are prepared to pay the US$10,000 fee if the quota is expanded to 15 percent. Increasing the quota would raise the number of designated seats in Punjab’s government colleges from 66 to about 500.
Officials indicate that the provincial government is hesitant to increase the quota due to the burden on state-run medical colleges, which are already struggling to uphold academic standards.
An overseas Pakistani dismissed the UHS’s assertion, pointing out that the PMDC’s letter dated May 23 did not limit the 15 percent quota to private colleges. The correspondence clarifies that Pakistani citizens living abroad, including those holding Green Cards and Iqama, who have finished their intermediate or equivalent education inside or outside of Pakistan, qualify for the 15 percent foreign seats in both public and private medical and dental institutions.