The Big Decision

So let’s talk about making that big decision. Are you ready for Pakistan? This is one harsh country. You’re in a completely different planet when your here, everything here is done in the opposite manner. Are you really ready for this?  Pakistan is a big country with a lot of different factors to consider. You name we’ve got it, from child rapists to terrorists, to extreme high rate of petty street crime and political idolism which goes above any level never seen anywhere else in the world. Moving here is a huge decision. I guess the question that you need to ask yourself is, “What are you prepared to do to become a doctor?” I left my comfort of my home in New Zealand, where everything was perfect, to come to this shit country just so I could become a doctor. I left everything, my friends, my family, my routine, my cricket hobby, my room…I mean everything. I picked upped my laptop and my school bag and migrated half way across the earth to this country. You need to ask yourself this question, are you ready for this? I used to get dropped by my dad to college in New Zealand, now to go to the coaching centre I cram in overloaded busses with by face plunged into greasy people’s hair. Are you willing to go that far? As you may know this is a country where the basic necessities are only available to 8% of the population. So there is heavy amounts of load shedding. Absolutely no water to drink. Pollution on an industrial scale. Cruelty and insanity on a street level. You need to ask yourself these questions, you need to think about it. Actually I’m going to tell you how I dealt with everything. My mother listed out all of these things. I laughed and said, “I don’t care Ami.” You seriously don’t need to care. If it’s hot its hot so what. If there’s no electricity there’s no electricity, if someone's shot he's shot that's his problem what can you do? Seriously you need this sort of solid belief system to help you survive in this country.

Yup, this can and does happen often...but who cares..right? 

Also consider what city in Pakistan you want to go in. Normally your gonna flow with the one your family is in, but you should be prepared to choose a different city depending on your medical college. KARACHI is a shit hole, but still 18 million people live here and the city is still thriving. LAHORE is a piece of crap where all people do is it eat food and take selfies and waste money. Though it may be safer to be out in the streets, Lahore is more shielded from street petty crime because the governing party is from there. Islamabad is a gem of a city, super safe to be outside at any time with whatever you want. The only thing is some of the private medical colleges closed down in 2014 (this year) because of not following PMDC regulations. (wow. that some class).

But honestly this is a harsh country and in order to succeed with our goal in mind. All we have to do is ignore the shit out of this place.

Good news. Bad News.

So…..now I’ve got some news. It’s some very very good news and some really really really bad news. Again this news only applies to Pakistani students who live in another country (not in Pakistan) and are planning to apply in a Pakistani Medical college.

BAD NEWS first. Take this like a man.

Bad News.......let it sink in..........

You will be considered a foreigner. So you will have to pay foreign fees for tuition fees and admission fees. You’re looking at approx. $15,000 USD per year for five years. Unfortunately no matter with what you do and what you have, you won’t be able to apply for the domestic seat quota (in medical colleges). Even if you have a Karachi Domicile (like me) which states your permanent address is in  bloody Karachi, you’re still only eligible for foreign seats only. Trust me, I had to come to Pakistan, (all the way from bloody New Zealand!!!), to find out the bad news.  Now I’ll explain why you will be classified as a foreigner. Medical students in Pakistan are competing for seat quotas, there are two main types. Local and foreign seats, locals go for local seats and foreigners (white people or people from Somalia etc) apply for foreigner seats. Now there’s us, overseas Pakistanis, people who never ever go to Pakistan but still have Pakistani citizenship somehow. PMDC (Pakistan Medical and Dental Council) has 2 rules regarding classification of overseas Pakistanis. (Rule 1) As per PMDC requirements, overseas Pakistanis are eligible to apply for domestic seats, but in another rule (Rule 2) PMDC states that a student who has studied the previous 4 years outside of Pakistan is also eligible for seats based on foreign seats. Now these two rules are beneficial for us overseas Pakistanis because it gives us a choice. But this is Pakistan, nothing ever happens in a straight and simple manner. The stupid thing this piece of crap organisation did was to give medical colleges in Pakistan A CHOICE REGARDING WHICH RULE TO FOLLOW. Aaaand of course all medical colleges (Government and Private Sector) chose Rule 2, because they earn more money from foreign fees. I swear this bad news is heart stopping. It’ll make you sober up in shame. You’ll feel regretted for not scoring higher in that test. Your path to depression has begun. Trust me this is some ground breaking bad news. If you don’t grasp the greatness and seriousness of this, read this bloody paragraph again! I live in Karachi, I went to the PMDC office (in bloody Islamabad!!!) to sort this bloody issue out and I swear I nearly punched that government officer in the face when he explained me this rule. You’re a Pakistani no matter what, but and whatever you do your going to be considered as a foreigner.

GOOD NEWS

Give the money, and become a doctor.......

Even after that, if you’re still going to apply in Pakistan. Well here’s the good news. Admission is piss easy. You have virtually no competition and all you have to do is complete the form and deposit the money. You won’t have to work hard or do anything to gain admission; you don’t even have to take the entrance test! Just submit your SAT-II scores and you’re done!  All you need is 550 in Physics, Chem, and Biology and you eligible. Honestly 550 is a bit low, get a 650 average and your admission is purely guaranteed. I’ll give you some stats to back this up. The 2015 Ziauddin entrance test hosted 2130 students. Of which only 22 students were applying for the foreign based seats. You see how easy gaining admission is? But wait! It gets even easier; Dow International Medical College is a college which admits students who are just like us. No seriously! Locals are not allowed to apply there. Admission there is sooo easy it happens on a first cum basis. Like apply their first (before the rest) and your admission is guaranteed. Scores of 550 can guarantee your admission! Just deposit $18,000 per year into their accounts and in five years you’ll be a doctor. Piss easy.

Hopefully this news will brighten you up a little. 

Important steps you need to take.

Make sure you grab this thing when you come to Pak....

Okay so now the intro and the boring stuff is out of the way,  let’s get to the good stuff. So now I’m going to tell you some house rules about Pakistan. You MUST have a PAKISTANI PASSPORT, you also MUST have a NICOP (It’s best to have both). A Pakistani passport is best because it allows you to be recognized as a Pakistani only. When you come to this country, the biggest secret you want to hide from everyone is that you’re from a different country. So have a passport, take this along with you were ever you go. A NICOP is also a MUST. If you don’t know what this is ask your dad, cus he’s the one who probably went through all that hassle of NADRA and got you that card. This card shows that you’re an OVERSEAS PAKISTANI CITIZEN. This card also has your NIC (National Identity Number) a sort of social security number. You need this card to gain admission otherwise you’re a goner.

Another thing, make sure you have your ORIGINAL COLLEGE TRANSCRIPTS! I mean super originals only, no colour copies etc. Cus in this country you need originals to process everything! (even pizza delivering sometimes!) Make sure you have transcripts, not recommendations, not a list with paper codes. Make Sure it’s a piece of paper which states your results for each science subject. Make sure you can see that the transcript has a separate heading for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Make sure there not just grouped under one heading. Trust me I had this problem and IBCC rejected my application like I was worth nothing. I had to go through 3 months of agony to get this process done.

Another thing is attestation, if you don’t know what that means, all goods, cus I just found out 6 months ago. ALL PHOTOCOPIED DOCUMENTS NEED TO BE SINGED AND STAPMED BY A GOVERNMENT OFFICER ABOVE GRADE 18. The best way to get this done is to make like 100 copies, (when ur not in Pakistan), of all Foreign passport, of all NICOPS, of all transcripts and take them to the Embassy of Pakistan (in your country) and get them signed there. It will be much easier than doing this in Pakistan, cus here to start with finding a printer is harder than finding gold. I swear everyone asks for a attested copy and if it’s not attested they won’t even look at your case.

Remember your going to Pakistan. There are no computers here, no productivity, and no bloody electricity! You’re in for one hell of a 

ride. 

- Habib

The Origin Story

Well basically I was born in a small little…………..nah that’s quite boring. My childhood stories are waaaay to boring to tell. All you need to know is that I spent 18 years of my life living in Singapore and New Zealand. Yep that’s the normal childhood we know about in Pakistan.

18 years of my life whizzed past and I had absolutely no clue what the hell happened. Throughout the years the dreaded question, “Oi!! What do you want to be when your older??!” was thrown at me, and every single time I dodged that bullet by replying in a childish manner, “dunno.”  It was the last year of college and the time had come to choose a direction. So I chose to become a pilot. I managed to convince my parents and that was the end of it. Phwww!! All done. Hardest decision of my life made!  All tensions dissolved. All worries finished. We can all sing with joy. Easiest decision of my life. And that’s the end of it. But nothing that’s simple, it is really?

It was all going good until that dreaded phone call from my granddad which shattered my hopes, tore away: my dreams, my future, my will to live, my passion and my soul (you getting my point? Or do I have to over act some more?).

 He inhospitably bellowed my acrimonious destiny; I was not going to be a pilot.

Throughout college I studied all the main subjects, (Physics, Chem, Bio and even bloody Calculus!!). My friends told me I was crazy for choosing the hardest subjects and jokingly I gave them a nothing reply – “meh.” Unfortunately, to add to my confusion, my grades in all subjects were reasonably good; I didn’t ace any subject but had good command of all of them (at least that’s what it felt like on the exam day). It all confused the hell out of me. I had no bloody idea what I was going to do! I liked all fields and my one true ‘love’ was stolen from me.  It was all hell breaking lose in my mind until 2 days before my finals my sweet grandmother said on the phone, “Doctor banja Habib. Hamri khandan mai kohi na doctory kare, tu banja Habib.”  So it was set. My future life was to be set by my old grandmother. As of that day I was destined to become a doctor.

I’m going to sum up a year of life in less than 80 words now. The next year I spent doing first year medicine in New Zealand, studying at Otago University, in the coldest city ever. Well, I didn’t meet the aggregate of 93.21% and wasn’t allowed to continue into 2^nd year Medicine. Although they offered me a seat in Neuroscience I refused and sat with my family to sort my life out.

It was decided then that I was going to try and get into a Medical school in Pakistan. And so the journey had begun. 

Thinking of studying medicine in Pakistan?

This blog is purely aimed at students who wish to study medicine in a Pakistani medical college. I’ve written this to share my personal experiences about the steps and colossal hurdles you and I will have to cross to get to that fancy podium, where we shake an old guy’s rusty arm and get handed a piece of paper that states were a doctor.  

In this blog I will share my personal experiences that I’ve taken to gain admission into a Pakistani Medical College. I’ll talk about the lengthy processes, the long waits, the hard decisions and pain staking points you must review before making the big move over to this harsh country.

I’m keeping the tone of this blog relatively informal, so we’ll get by with some slangs and I’ll toss in a few jokes to ease the nervous readers mind. So sit back and enjoy the ride along with me, whilst we become Dr Sahib’s and Madam’s…