ISLAMABAD: The management of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) registered six new medical colleges which will further widen the faculty-student ratio across the country.

Moreover, the registration of the colleges has triggered a debate over the management committee’s power to take such a decision because it had been constituted only to run the day-to-day affairs of the PMDC.

However, PMDC Registrar retired Brig Dr Hafizuddin Ahmed Siddiqui claimed that the committee was fully empowered to register colleges.

Secretary Ministry National Health Services (NHS) Ayub Sheikh, who notified the registration of colleges, said there was a need to open quality colleges.

Establishment of new colleges will increase teacher-student ratio across the country

On August 26, President Mamnoon Hussain promulgated the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Amendment Ordinance 2015 after which the executive council of the PMDC was dissolved. Later, the management committee, consisting of retired Maj Gen Azhar Kiyani, Prof Abid Farooqi, Prof Nadeem Rizvi and others, was formed. The committee was tasked to hold elections of the executive council within 120 days. The polls were held in the country, except Punjab, on December 5 while in Punjab the elections will be held on December 15.

On December 11, the ordinance through which the PMDC was dissolved was extended for a period of another 120 days though a resolution passed by the National Assembly.

An official of the PMDC requesting anonymity told Dawn that despite the shortage of faculty the committee registered six new colleges.

“These colleges include Fazaia Medical College Islamabad, Hazrat Barri Sarkar Medical College Islamabad, Fauji Foundation Dental College Rawalpindi, CMH Medical College Multan, Sialkot Medical College Sialkot and Akhter Saeed Medical College Lahore,” he said.

According to the PMDC documents, available with Dawn, there is a requirement of 10,846 faculty members in the medical colleges across the country. However, at present there are only 6,503 faculty members, leaving a shortage of 4,343.

The official said the registration of new medical colleges would further increase the teacher-student ratio.

“Moreover, there is also a possibility that the CMH Medical College Bahawalpur and Bakhtawar Amin Medical College Narowal will soon be registered. The committee has also started allowing some of the medical colleges, which were stopped by the former management, to start admissions,” he said.

The PMDC registrar confirmed to Dawn that six medical colleges had been registered.

“We have registered five medical colleges and the sixth one, Fauji Foundation Dental College Rawalpindi, was approved by the former management.

“As far as the CMH Medical College Bahawalpur and Bakhtawar Amin Medical College Narowal are concerned, we have just started the process.”

He said there were 14 colleges admissions of which were stopped by the former management. “We have been inspecting them again to see if they had removed the deficiencies. Only those colleges will be allowed to admit students which have removed the deficiencies.”

The registrar confirmed that there was a shortage of faculty members but said if a department had no professor, two associate professors would be appointed there.

“Ideally, there should be a professor in every department but two associate professors also meet the requirement. Moreover, we have made a law under which faculty members can only move from one institution to other from October 1 to December 31 to avoid disruption to academic activities in medical colleges,” he said.

He said the new management committee had stopped admissions to Amina Inayat Medical College, Sheikhupura, Sheikh Zayed Medical College Lahore and rejected the application for registration of Sahara Medical College Narowal.

Spokesman for Young Doctors Association (YDA) Punjab Dr Amir Bandesha said the management committee had exceeded its mandate.

“It did not have the mandate to register colleges as registration is a long-term decision and the committee is only mandated to deal with day-to-day affairs of the PMDC,” he said.

An official of the health ministry said according to the rules colleges filed applications with the ministry and then the applications were forwarded to the PMDC.

“The PMDC inspects, completes the documentation and sends its recommendation to the ministry. After that, the secretary health is authorised to endorse the recommendation.”

He said the ministry had issued notifications about the registration of Fazaia Medical College Islamabad and CMH Medical College Multan. The remaining notifications will be issued in a few days.

Secretary ministry of NHS Ayub Sheikh told Dawn that he had endorsed the registration of the new colleges because they would ensure quality education.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2015