Punjab Assembly weighs vice chancellor control of medical universities

Punjab's seven public medical universities would be run by vice chancellors holding the powers of chief executive and chief academic officer, with administrative control over their affiliated colleges and teaching hospitals, under an ordinance placed before the provincial assembly.

The Public Sector Medical Universities (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2026 was presented in the Punjab Assembly and referred to the Standing Committee on Higher Education, ProPakistani reported. The governor of Punjab approved the ordinance on 20 October 2026 for 90 days. It becomes law only once the assembly passes it after considering the committee's report.

Under the draft, a vice chancellor would control the officers, faculty and employees of the university, and also the colleges, teaching hospitals and other institutions attached to it. The ordinance amends the laws governing the seven public medical universities.

King Edward Medical College Lahore would return to being a constituent college of its university. Rawalpindi Medical College and Nishtar Medical College Multan would be given legal status as constituent colleges of their respective universities.

Two colleges would be upgraded to universities. Fatima Jinnah Medical College Lahore would become Fatima Jinnah Medical University, and Punjab Medical College Faisalabad would become Faisalabad Medical University.

The draft also makes representation of the finance department mandatory on the decision-making bodies of the public medical universities. The finance secretary, or an officer of at least additional secretary rank nominated for the purpose, would sit on those bodies.

ProPakistani described the proposals as significant changes to the administrative system of the province's public medical universities. The standing committee will examine the ordinance and report back to the House, where approval would turn it into an act of the provincial legislature.

No statement from the Punjab government, the higher education department or any of the universities was carried in the report. The text of the ordinance, beyond the changes described, was not published with it.