Official data released by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) shows that none of the Pakistani medical graduates who studied in Barbados, Cuba, Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, the Philippines, Saint Lucia, or Sudan passed the National Registration Examination (NRE) Step-1 conducted in December 2025.
The results highlight a broader issue with overseas medical education, as only about one in five foreign-trained doctors qualified nationwide. Out of 7,076 candidates who appeared in the exam, just 1,473 cleared it, while 5,603 failed, placing the overall pass rate at 20.8 percent.
Regulatory officials described the complete failure of candidates from eight countries as particularly concerning, pointing to systemic academic shortcomings rather than isolated individual failures.
Kyrgyzstan produced the highest number of candidates but recorded only 951 passes out of 4,256 examinees, a success rate of roughly 22 percent. China reported 333 passes out of 2,154 candidates, resulting in a pass rate of about 15.5 percent.
Other Central Asian destinations also showed weak outcomes. Kazakhstan saw 54 passes out of 174 candidates, Uzbekistan recorded 35 passes out of 116, and Tajikistan had 30 passes out of 91 candidates. Russia reported just two successful candidates out of 16.
Among regional countries, Afghanistan recorded 18 passes out of 160 candidates. Ukraine and Malaysia each produced only two and one successful candidates, respectively.
A few countries with very small candidate numbers showed higher pass rates, but officials cautioned that these results do not carry statistical weight due to limited participation.
In contrast, Bangladesh recorded 10 passes out of 11 candidates, while Iran reported 20 passes out of 39. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates each reported 100 percent pass rates, with one to three candidates appearing from each country.