While researching this page, we found one source listing King Edward Medical University's recent open-merit closing aggregate at 93.67%, and another — both presenting themselves as drawing on official UHS merit lists — listing it at 96.06% for what appears to be the same or an adjacent cycle.
Both can't be right for the exact same list. The likely explanation is that one or both are citing a different year than they appear to, or relying on a cached/outdated figure. We're telling you this not to be dramatic, but because it's the single most important thing to understand before using any closing-merit number, including the ones below: treat every figure as a reference range, verify against the official source for your specific year, and never plan your entire college strategy around one decimal point you found online.
Punjab
Punjab's top public colleges have closed open-merit MBBS seats somewhere in this range across recent cycles, with King Edward Medical University consistently at or near the top of the province.
Other Punjab public colleges (Services, FJMC, RMU, NMU) have generally closed a few points lower, with the province-wide realistic target for any open-merit public seat sitting around 90%+ in recent years.
Sourced from UHS-referencing merit-list aggregators; given the discrepancy noted above, treat as a range rather than an exact figure.
Private colleges in Punjab have historically admitted students well below the public open-merit threshold — sometimes into the mid-70s at smaller-city institutions — in exchange for the higher, PMDC-regulated tuition fee.
Sindh
Sindh's main public medical colleges have generally closed lower than Punjab's top tier, largely because Punjab has far more open-merit seats relative to its applicant pool. Don't assume Punjab's percentages transfer directly — Sindh's competitive dynamics are genuinely different.
Figures vary noticeably by specific college within Karachi; some smaller-quota colleges have shown self-finance cutoffs close to or even slightly below open-merit cutoffs in certain past cycles, which is itself a sign of how much these numbers can shift.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
KP's leading public colleges have closed in this general range in recent cycles, with newer or smaller-city colleges (like Bacha Khan Medical College, Mardan) typically a few points lower.
KP also runs distinct seat categories — open merit, general self-finance, merged-districts (NMTD), backward area, and disability — each with its own separate, and meaningfully different, cutoff.
Balochistan & AJK
These regions have historically had significantly lower closing merits than Punjab, Sindh, or KP — largely a function of a smaller applicant pool relative to available seats, not an easier exam. If your domicile is in one of these regions, your realistic competitive range looks very different from a Punjab-domicile student's.
Federal & Armed Forces Colleges
Federal colleges under SZABMU and NUMS-administered Armed Forces colleges have reportedly closed in a similarly high range to Punjab's top tier in recent cycles — but we found this from a single source rather than the multi-source corroboration we'd want for a figure this specific, so treat it with extra caution. NUMS uses its own separate test and merit system entirely — see our NUMS vs PMDC comparison for how that works.
How to Actually Use This Data
The honest summary: closing merit moves every year based on that specific cycle's applicant pool and paper difficulty — nobody can predict it months in advance with real precision, including us. What's reliable is the relative pattern (Punjab's top tier is genuinely harder to get into than Balochistan's, for instance) — what's not reliable is treating any single decimal point as a guarantee.
Frequently Asked Questions
What aggregate do I need for a public college in Punjab?
Top colleges have recently closed in the low-to-mid 90s, with other public colleges a few points lower — but the exact number shifts every cycle.
Why do different sites show different numbers for the same college?
Because they're often citing different years without making that clear, or relying on stale data. We found this exact problem while researching this page.
Is Sindh or KP's merit lower than Punjab's?
Generally yes, by several points — mostly due to applicant volume, not exam difficulty. Treat it as a pattern, not an exact prediction.