“Ghost” Medical College in Peshawar Exposed for Operating Without Campus or Facilities
“Ghost” Medical College in Peshawar Exposed for Operating Without Campus or Facilities
Nadeem Tanoli
Islamabad: A bombshell allegation has rocked Pakistan’s medical education sector after Senator Atta ur Rehman revealed that a private medical college in Peshawar is operating without any physical campus—existing solely “on paper.” The shocking claim was made during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Health and has triggered immediate concern from national regulatory authorities.
Senator Rehman raised the issue as a Point of Public Importance, accusing regulators of turning a blind eye to a rising number of private medical colleges functioning without oversight or proper facilities. “Medical colleges are now in every street,” he remarked, before dropping a specific and troubling assertion: “There is a medical college in Peshawar that has no existence on the ground. It has no rooms, no building, nothing. It is only on paper, but it has been given a license.”
The senator’s statement suggests that this so-called institution has received official recognition and permission to operate—despite having none of the basic infrastructure required for training future doctors. No classrooms, no laboratories, no faculty, and no affiliated teaching hospital.
The revelation sparked immediate alarm from the Minister, the committee chairman, and the President of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), the body responsible for licensing and oversight of medical colleges in the country. The Minister urgently requested Senator Rehman to share the name of the college. “If this is true, we will take action,” he said. The PMDC President added, “We will have it inspected, and if necessary, we will order it to be sealed.”
The Minister echoed these sentiments, stating that such a situation could not be ignored. “This is a matter of human lives,” he warned. “An unqualified institution producing medical graduates is a threat to public safety.”
Senator Rehman, while withholding the name during the public session, promised to share the details with the chairman and the PMDC leadership in private. He also tied this revelation to a wider decline in medical education standards in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “Eighty percent of our students in KPK are failing,” he noted. “When colleges like this exist, what will be the future of our youth?”
The existence of such a “ghost” college—if confirmed—would not only represent a fraud against students and their families but also a systemic failure of regulatory enforcement. It would mean that individuals may be graduating and entering the medical profession without any formal education or clinical training, posing a direct risk to patient lives.
The committee has committed to a swift follow-up, and the PMDC has pledged immediate inspection upon receiving the name of the institution.
