Rs2.1 million at admission, five per cent a year, CPI on top: the PMDC fee-increase notification the Lahore High Court suspended in September 2026

Private medical college fees in Pakistan are set within limits fixed by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), and every change to those limits is argued over in court. Families planning five years of MBBS fees need to know not only what a college charges in year one but what the regulator allows it to add each year afterwards. In September 2026 the Lahore High Court stopped one such mechanism, at least for now.

According to The Express Tribune (19 September 2026), Justice Khalid Ishaq on Friday 18 September suspended a PMDC notification that permitted medical colleges to raise the fees they charge. The petition was filed by Central Park Medical College, Lahore. Its counsel, Advocate Ramzan Dhuddi (spelt Dhudhi by Daily Times), told the court that the college had charged students Rs2.1 million in fees at admission, that the PMDC notification allowed annual increases of five per cent, and that a separate PMDC notification allowed collection linked to the Consumer Price Index. He argued that the council had no authority to issue such a notification and that only Parliament could change the governing law. Daily Times (18 September 2026) reported the same order and the same figures, adding that the suspension is temporary and that the case will continue while the court examines whether the PMDC had the legal power to permit the increases.

The Tribune placed the order alongside two other PMDC decisions of the same week. The council withdrew its BDS framework notification of 8 July 2026, which had extended the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme to five years; PMDC President Dr Rizwan Taj said one year of clerkship would remain mandatory and students would no longer pay fees for an extra year. The council also told universities running MDCAT 2026, with more than 138,000 candidates sitting on 20 September, to collect question papers from candidates immediately after the test, which the Tribune noted would make it harder to challenge ambiguous, wrong or out-of-syllabus questions.

The mechanism that students should understand is compounding. If a five per cent rise applied to a fee of that size, it would add roughly Rs100,000 in the second year, and a CPI link adds inflation on top, so a fee that looks fixed at admission can grow substantially before graduation. Whether the regulator may authorise that is now a question for the court.

Before paying any private college, ask for the fee for every year of the course in writing, and ask which PMDC notification the college relies on for any increase. Check the PMDC website for the current fee rules, pay the college directly and keep every receipt. If a college demands an increase mid-course, ask it to cite the authority, because this case shows that the authority itself can be suspended.