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58,805 quack outlets sealed and counting: Punjab's decade-long campaign against unqualified "doctors", and why a real degree matters more than a signboard
Pakistan's most populous province has a regulator whose main job, measured in numbers, is closing clinics run by people who are not doctors. The scale of the work is the clearest statement of how many patients had been trusting a signboard.
According to The Nation, the Punjab Healthcare Commission sealed 492 treatment centres run by unqualified people across the province in November 2025 alone, after inspecting 2,128 facilities; Lahore accounted for 507 visits and 139 closures, the most of any district. Dawn reported 1,415 clinics sealed in six weeks in an earlier phase of the campaign. The commission's running total, reported at 58,805 quackery outlets sealed as of May 2025, has accumulated over years of inspections; The Express Tribune has reported on hundreds of quacks caught in single sweeps. The commission has said the drive will continue without let-up to protect patients from unregulated treatment.
For a student choosing a medical college, the numbers explain a market. The quack outlets closed by the commission were run by people with no qualification, with fake ones, or with qualifications in something else, and they existed because patients could not tell. Every degree bought without a course, every "alternative" diploma issued in a week, every foreign MBBS from a college no regulator recognises, ends in a clinic like these, and the commission's sealing tape is the eventual verdict on it.
Two things follow. If you are the student, the only qualification worth paying for is the one that puts your name on the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council's register, or your own country's, because the alternative is a career that ends with an inspection. If you are a patient in Punjab, the commission's register of licensed facilities and the council's register of doctors are public, and the 58,805 closures are the reason to use them before the visit, not after.
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This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.