Medical quota.

Byline: Nasser Yousaf - Abbottabad

THIS refers to an official notification regarding the doubling of seats in medical colleges for students belonging to the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). This news is another grim reminder that we continue to play around with issues of extremely sensitive nature.

The state may reason that the step is aimed at providing opportunities to the under-privileged in the tribal areas who could otherwise not compete with students of the urban or settled areas. The frivolity of this logic could be easily found out if a study is carried out to know if the benefit of the quota system is indeed availed of by the bona fide permanent residents of the tribal areas or those studying in the privileged institutions in the major urban centres.

In either case the absurdity of the policy is obvious.

We must know that all public sector colleges in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and perhaps elsewhere in Pakistan, have seats reserved for students from the tribal areas at the level of FSc. In most cases the same students then benefit from the quota system at the time of admission to the professional colleges.

How would the government explain the logic behind this decision of allowing...