KARACHI: The composition of the ad hoc committee set up by the Supreme Court to look after the affairs of defunct Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has attracted ‘criticism’ from experts representing the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), the Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (PAMI) as well as senior professors heading medical universities.

All these experts expressed surprise that while the court had notified senior most teachers either heading medical universities or medical colleges (from other provinces) on the ad hoc body, “it did not nominate any relevant seasoned person from Sindh”.

Speaking to Dawn on Thursday when the ad hoc PMDC body met for the first time in Islamabad, these experts said that the member the court had notified from Sindh was not qualified to be part of the PMDC body and as such the province had been deprived of the opportunity to present its case in the body.

“It’s very unfortunate that Sindh which has 11, the highest number of medical universities and colleges in the private and public sector, in the country has no representation on the body,” said PMA secretary general Dr Qaisar Sajjad.

He explained that the PMDC’s job was to regulate medical education, medical teaching institutions and practices. “Hence, a relevant person on the body would be one who has been engaged as a teacher/researcher with a medical university or medical college and not a hospital administrator as has been done,” he said.

A hospital administrator, he pointed out, was no body to talk on the issues pertaining to medical education and teaching. “If you won’t have a right person at the right job, you can’t expect things to be done on merit as the court intends to do. Presently, medical education and teaching face plethora of issues and matters would further deteriorate if decisions were not taken with transparency,” Dr Sajjad noted.

He also expressed disappointment over the “dissolution of elected executive council of PMDC” and said that it came into being after promulgation of an ordinance in 2015.

“This ordinance was passed by the National Assembly but blocked by two senators in the senate, belonging to a political party and the ordinance was referred to the Council of Common Interest (CCI) for further evaluation.

“PMA believes that CCI is not the proper forum for referral as the PMDC is a federal regulatory body by virtue of 1962 ordinance,” he said demanding fair elections of PMDC as soon as possible.

Tariq Sohail heading the Pakistan Association of Private Medical and Dental Institutions (PAMI) also described “nomination of a non-relevant person on the PMDC body as unfortunate”.

He said: “We share the concern that there is no representation from Sindh on the PMDC ad hoc body. A relevant person would be a senior teacher either heading a medical college or medical university as has been done in the case of other province.”

Member from Sindh

The court in its notification issued on Wednesday stated that the council would comprise of Mr Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, former judge of this court as chairman, attorney general of Pakistan (member) or in case of non-availability his nominee/representative, federal secretary health, Islamabad (member), surgeon general of the Pakistan Armed Forces (member), vice chancellor of the National University of Medical Sciences (member), vice chancellor of the University of Health Sciences Lahore (member), executive director of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi (member), vice chancellor of the Khyber Medical University, Peshawar (member) and principal of the Bolan Medical College, Quetta (member).

Dr Seemin Jamali, currently holding the post of executive director of the JPMC, attended Thursday’s meeting of the body as member from Sindh.

According to experts, the JPMC, a major public-sector hospital in Karachi, doesn’t fall in the category of ‘medical institution’ within the meaning of PMDC ordinance, 1962.

The health facility neither trains medical students, nor grants any degrees, diploma or licenses in medicine. Moreover, the post of the JPMC executive director is a non-teaching administrative post at a hospital.

According to Prof Azam Hussain Yousfani, the Vice Chancellor of Shaheed Benazir University of Medicine and Health Science in Nawabshah, Sindh hadn’t been represented on the PMDC ad hoc body for the second time. “I remember that the director of the Indus Hospital was nominated from Sindh when the PMDC was earlier dissolved. Hence, this has happened for the second time and is highly unfair,” he said. “If the court couldn’t nominate the senior most vice chancellor of a medical university in Sindh, it could at least have chosen a relevant person,” he added.

“We were thinking that Prof Tariq Rafi heading the Jinnah Sindh Medical University (JSMU) had been notified as a member from Sindh. This was widely reported by newspapers. But, we didn’t know that a non-technical person has been nominated,” he observed.

Prof Lubna Baig, the pro vice chancellor at JSMU, shared similar sentiments. She said: “The JSMU is the largest public sector medical university in Sindh and the second largest in the country, given its high student enrolment. It’s regretting that this great institution has been completely ignored.”

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2018

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