June 27, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1429

LARKANA, June 26: Demanding removal of the Principal Chandka Medical College, the Pakistan Medical Association, Larkana Chapter at a meeting on Wednesday observed that the recommendations made by him against 25 diploma holder doctors were based on personal grudge.

The principal had recommended to the Sindh Health Department to repatriate the services of 25 doctors to their original postings. Working in different disciplines of cardiology, dermatology, radiology, chest, gyneacology, paediatrics, ophthalmology, medicine and other departments, these include two professors, eight assistant professors, one associate professor, 13 senior registrars and one senior demonstrator.

President Larkana PMA, Dr Abdul Waheed Memon while talking to Dawn questioned as to why the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) did not object the appointment of 25 diploma holders at the time of recognising the institution. Again when the sitting principal sent the strength of faculty members to the Higher Education Commission why he failed to identify this anomaly which he feels now.

He alleged that when the government refused to induct Principal Prof Surgeon Sikandar Shaikh as Vice-Chancellor of the proposed Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Medical University, he began conspiring against up-gradation of the college.

The principal who calls others ‘ineligible’ himself failed thrice to qualify the Commission while in 1990, his services were regularised through the PPP government’s regularisation policy, he said.

The principal in, June 12, letter to Secretary Health referring to telephonic conversation said posting of doctors without proper qualification was a clear violation of rules of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) and the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

The principal said reverting back these doctors to their original posts was important in the light of the likely up-gradation of the CMC to a medical university.

The principal CMC Larkana told Dawn that these diploma holders qualified the ‘commission’ for the posts of district surgeon, district physician, district ophthalmologist, radiologist, etc. Later on they influenced to get themselves posted in the CMC Larkana and began their career as teachers.

When asked as to how the gap would be filled on their shifting back, he said qualified doctors meeting the criterion of PMDC and HEC were available in Larkana and they could fill the space, if not in one go, then gradually. He said diploma holders were ineligible to become teacher so they should better go back to their original posts.