July 11, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 25, 1428

ISLAMABAD, July 10: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on Monday controversially recommended over 30 institutions for recognition, ignoring its own rules and regulations.

The 108th session of the council, which was dominated by private institutions, had the guts to recommend even those institutions that had been identified by the inspection teams as “deficient”.

The council discussed the fate of almost 40 medical institutions aspiring recognition by the PMDC.

A source disclosed that inspection reports of none of these 40 institutions were presented before the council, despite being a mandatory requirement under the PMDC regulations.

The council instead decided on the basis of the conveners’ report.

The source pointing towards inconsistencies in the reports said Margalla Institute of Dentistry had been inspected by a person, who was not a dentist.

Once again like the council’s previous session a large number of big names in medical education like the JPMC, National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, National Institute of Child Health, College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, Punjab University, Punjab Medical

College Faisalabad, Fatima Jinnah Medical and Dental College, PGMI Lahore,

Army Medical College, Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Balochistan

University, Peshawar University, PGMI Peshawar, Ayub Medical College Abbotabad, Institute of Public Health Lahore were not invited to the session because of the fear of dissent.

In contrast, institutions that were recommended for recognition at the meeting and even those that were denied recognition were represented at the session.

The haste with which the entire process was completed in almost three hours raised several eyebrows.

The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Punjab was quick to react to the “controversial recognition” of medical institutions and constituted a committee to challenge PMDC’s decision vowing to stop the “illegal action”.

The committee headed by PMA’s provincial president Dr Khalid Randhawa plans to take the matter to the Supreme Court.

Dr Randhawa said it’s hilarious that institutions that had been closed on the orders of the Supreme Court had been recognised by the PMDC.

He accused the council of corruption and said if the trend continued unabated then very soon “qualified quacks” would be seen playing with the health of citizens all over the country.

Repeated attempts were made to reach PMDC President Prof (Dr) Sibtul Hasnain on his cellphone but he was not available for comments.